Not What God Wants
Phase 4 – Grace Produces Righteousness
Religious activity without transformation.
Passage: Isaiah 58:1–8
“No, this is the kind of fasting I want: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned, share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless.” Isaiah 58:6–7 (NLT)
“Watch out! Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven.” Matthew 6:1 (NLT)
Reflection
Buckle up! This is a wake-up call! Not to the world, This is to us. “They seek me daily… and delight to know my ways.” On the surface, this looks right, but God says something is deeply wrong.
Because they are engaging in religious activity, while living completely disconnected lives. And this is where it becomes uncomfortable, because this is not ancient history, this is now.
We can go to church, read the Bible, pray, and still be completely misaligned. Talking the talk, but not walking the walk.
And even more confronting, they are doing religious acts in order to get something from God. Fasting, praying to be seen to be doing the right thing.
That is the issue, not a lack of devotion, but a wrong motivation. “Why have we fasted, and you have not seen it?” Do you hear it? We did our part, why didn’t You respond?
This is transactional faith. Performance based spirituality. I do this… so God does that.
And while they are fasting… they are mistreating others, living for themselves and disconnected from God’s heart.
This is the tension. Sunday looks right. The rest of life does not.
And this is where it lands hard, because we can so easily live here for years and not even recognise it. Sincerely. Consistently. And completely miss it.
“I go to church.” “I’m a good person.” “I’ll be okay.” But God is not measuring attendance, He is looking at the heart, and the life that flows from it.
And then God redefines it, and not as more activity or more effort. Something entirely different. “This is the kind of fasting I want…”
Loose the chains. Lift the burdens. Feed the hungry. Care for the broken. This is righteousness, and not just contained to a moment, but lived out.
God’s divine order is not just religious life, it is your whole life.
And here is where the shift happens. When grace takes hold, it begins to move outward, not because we have earned anything, but because His life is now at work within us. No longer, “What can I get from God?” but, “How do I reflect Him?”
And then comes the result. And again not forced or earned. “Then your light will break forth like the dawn…” Light. Healing. Presence. The very things they were trying to get, come naturally.
And what they were trying to get from God through performance… is no longer something to strive for, but something that flows from a life aligned with Him.
This is the turning point then. Stop performing, and allow Him to transform who you are becoming. Grace does not produce activity, it produces transformation.
Prayer
Lord Jesus,
Search my heart. Show me where I have been going through the motions while living disconnected from You. Please forgive me for the times I have tried to earn from You, instead of being formed by You.
Realign my heart with Yours. Help me to live a life that reflects Your character, not just in moments, but in all of life, everything. Teach me to walk in Your true righteousness. And not for show or reward. But because I belong to You.
In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.