Is that the best you have to give?

“Yet they act so pious! They come to the Temple every day and seem delighted to learn all about me. They act like a righteous nation that would never abandon the laws of its God. They ask me to take action on their behalf, pretending they want to be near me. ‘We have fasted before you!’ they say. ‘Why aren’t you impressed? We have been very hard on ourselves, and you don’t even notice it!’ “I will tell you why!” I respond. “It’s because you are fasting to please yourselves. Even while you fast, you keep oppressing your workers. What good is fasting when you keep on fighting and quarreling? This kind of fasting will never get you anywhere with me. You humble yourselves by going through the motions of penance, bowing your heads like reeds bending in the wind. You dress in burlap and cover yourselves with ashes. Is this what you call fasting? Do you really think this will please the LORD?”
‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭58:2-5‬ ‭NLT‬‬
http://bible.com/116/isa.58.2-5.nlt


We Christians are far from perfect. I know because I might be the furthest. Yet, I see so many followers trying to present the air of perfection. It saddens me that many of the lost see right through the shirad. Who do we think we are fooling? 

What saddens me even more is the thought that we can fool God. We try to follow the rituals of worship without praising God from our hearts. We say we fight for the widows, orphans and homeless, yet only do so out of obligation. We walk through our ministry to fulfill a requirement, to check off a duty, thinking we can please the Lord with our hollow service. 

We need to examine ourselves. Are we giving the best we have to give?  We need to be genuine in our lives. We can't fool God. Our hearts, our souls, and our minds need to be transformed, not out of obligation, but because of love of  God and our genuine concern for humanity? The love our God has shown us, with perfect grace, needs to be on display. We need to do more than just go through the motions. True faith will shine through. God will see it and so will the lost.