Its so easy to let prayer become a daily ritual; you pray before meals (or maybe you don't), and you pray before you go to bed, and you do so because that is what you have always done. Now there is nothing at all wrong with praying at these times, in fact it is very wise to pray at such intervals in your day; however we must not let this become something we just rattle off out of ritual, like an old tape recorder.
'To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?' says the Lord. 'I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or goats'. (Isaiah 1:11)
In the time of Isaiah the Israelites were sacrificing to God out of custom. While they daily brought the sacrifices to the altar, their hearts were not in it. In their hearts they served other gods rather than the Lord to whom they offered sacrifices. Jesus tells us we cannot serve two masters at once. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (Matthew 6:24).
We need to be especially careful that our prayers and worship of God does not become like the empty sacrifices of the Israelites. We cannot just go through the motions; God has no delight in that. Rather, He wants a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart; these O God you will not despise (Psalm 51:17).
May our prayers then be prayed from the heart. Come before God in prayer knowing that you don't deserve His blessing, and yet, knowing that you are able to come before His throne only because of the blood of Christ. God is an almighty and just God who demands reverence and fear; yet we are His adoptive heirs, and joint heirs with Christ (Romans 8:16-17). It is for this reason that we can come before Him and speak to Him with the openness of a child to its earthly Father. God loves you; that's why He sent His son to die for you. The path for prayer to God has been opened; now we just need to pray from the heart.
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