“This is what the Lord says to the house of Israel: ‘Seek me and live; do not seek Bethel, do not go to Gilgal, do not journey to Beersheba. For Gilgal will surely go into exile, and Bethel will be reduced to nothing.’ Seek the Lord and live, or he will sweep through the house of Joseph like a fire; it will devour, and Bethel will have no one to quench it” (Amos 5: 4-6 NIV).
The Israelites loved religious activities. They had many places consecrated for religious services (places like Bethel, Gilgal, Beersheba, not to talk of Jerusalem), and they were ready to travel many kilometers to these places to perform religious activities in these consecrated places. However, they were not ready to be in right standing with God. They were not really seeking Him. Therefore, God warned them not to rely on their religious activities or religious places, but that they should rather seek Him if they want to live. He promised to destroy all the religious places and even send them to exile if they do not repent.
It is interesting that there are many religious places today – prayer mountains, camp grounds, churches, mosques, and the likes. These places of worship are full to the brim on Sundays and other worship times with many so-called men of God leading them, but the religious activities of most of these people do not correspond to their right standing with God they claim they are serving. Many of these people are just paying lip service to God. They are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. They are only going to these religious places for their ulterior selfish motives. In fact, our society is getting worse every day. While the Samaritan woman was trying to argue about the right religious place with Jesus Christ, He declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.... Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4:21-24 NIV).
Why are you going to religious places? Are you really seeking God there or you are just performing religious activities probably because of what you can get from God? Genuinely seek God if you want Him to really bless you.
In His service,
Bayo Afolaranmi (Pastor).
Prayer Point: Lord, help me to genuinely seek you, and not religious places.
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