Too busy not to pray
I remember a time when I was coloring outside the lines. I knew I was sinning, but still I wondered why my early-morning prayer times at the office seemed cold and mechanical. I had a regular prayer time and a regular prayer place; for some reason, though, I just didn’t want to get into a deep discussion with God.
Then I read God’s words in the book of Malachi. “‘Where is the respect due me?’ says the LORD Almighty. `It is you, 0 priests, who show contempt for my name. But you ask, “How have we shown contempt for your name?”"‘ (1:6).
Lots of ways, God says through Malachi. Let me name a few.
You have been cheating God. Despite God’s clear instructions to offer only the best animals as sacrifices to the Lord, Israelites were taking their prize animals to market, where they could get top dollar for them. Malachi 1 reveals that they then took the worthless animals-the blind, the lame, the ready to die-and brought them to God’s altar.
You have also been cheating the poor-paying absurdly low wages, making life economically impossible for single mothers and treating illegal immigrants unjustly (Malachi 3:5).
In addition, you have been cheatingyourfamilies. Divorce was rampant. “You weep and wail because [the Lord] no longer pays attention to your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. You ask, `Why?’ It is because the LORD is acting as the witness between you and the wife of your youth, because you have broken faith with her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant” (Malachi 2:13-14).
Through Malachi, God exclaimed, “After cheating me, the oppressed among you and even your own families, you have the audacity to ask for my blessing? You blatantly sin against me and then have the gall to ask for favors? You rebel against me and then expect me not to be affected by your disobedience? Excuse me, but I am deeply affected. Your sin breaks my heart. It feels like betrayal.”
Friend, if you and I do not live in submission to God, we lose the sense of warmth and closeness with him. We may feel nostalgic about the prayer times we used to have, but we’ve put up a sin barrier that will have to come down before we can enjoy a loving relationship with him again. We can have no deep, ongoing fellowship with God unless we obey him-totally.
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