Empty Religion

The Lord says:
"These people come near to me with their mouth
and honour me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men"

Isaiah 29:13

I read this during my quiet time the other day and was once again reminded that God isn't concerned with my outer appearance and actions. I was reflecting and discussing with friends the other day -- I can study the Bible, learn about the laws of God, and then file the pieces of information into my head. Being more of an intellectual, loving knowledge, desiring to understand and enjoying discussions that make me think, I can memorize Scripture and I can pull out the right verse to apply in a given situation in my day to day life. But all of this is just head knowledge. To me, it seems kinda empty. I yearn for something more. I want a religion that is more than just simply going through the motions. I desire to be changed. And i have to ask myself from time to time, is God really touching my heart? Is he really changing me? And if not, why not? How does the Word go from my head to touch my heart and as a result, change the way i live my life? Am i my own barrier? Am i willing to allow God to have his way with me?

Jesus called the Pharisees hypocrites. I'm starting to understand that what Jesus meant was not that the Pharisees taught about the laws and yet failed to obey them. I think maybe Jesus meant that the Pharisees didn't understand the heart behind the law. They were just going through the motions. They didn't read between the lines of the laws of God. They didn't understand the heart of God for making those laws in the first place. They followed the laws to the letter, but that's it. Their worship of God was made up only of rules taught by men.

I used to think, and perhaps other people feel the same way, that God's law were restrictive and old-fashioned. I used to think that Christianity was a good way to live your life void of freedom to make choices for my life. And then i realized that when i decided to live by my own rules, the choices that I thought would give freedom came with consequences that bound me and haunted my soul. I realize then that God's laws are not restrictive and old-fashioned. They were created for a purpose -- for our protection and our best interest. They are like the rules that your parents set up for you as a kid -- like, don't touch that stove element when it is on. If my parents gave this rule to me without explaining what the consequences were, wouldn't i claim that my parents were unfair for setting this rule? As a curious rebellious kid, wouldn't i be more interested in the freedom to touch the element rather than the restriction of not being able to touch the element? And then once i break the rule and touch the hot element and get burned as a result, of course, then i can realize that my parents had the best interest after all. duh.

but then there are those other laws in the Bible -- the ones that are difficult to understand because at first read, it seems to make us suffer more than keep us from pain. For example, love your neighbour as yourself. And beyond this, love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you. Why? I believe that God loves us too much to let us live the way our flesh is wired to live -- selfishly. And so he gives this law to show us the better way -- to free us from our selfish, and destructive ways.

Can i trust that God's rules really protect me from harm? Or even more than that, that God's vision for humanity is not that we look out solely for ourselves but that if we looked out for others as much as we looked out for ourselves, that maybe this world could look like the kingdom of heaven on earth?