Don't check the box...

Proverbs 21:3 - "To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice."

Spend enough time in the church or around "religious" folk and it's easy to fall into the "check the box" mode.

• Go to church. Check.
• Give ___% each month. Check.
• Read my Bible. Check.
• Meet with my small group / community group. Check.
• ____________________________ (fill in the blank). Check.

And on and on the list goes. Disengage the heart...engage the routine. Do. Do. Do. List. List. List. Check. Check. Check.

The argument goes something like this:

• If I do the "right" things at the right times I will be considered "righteous."
• If I am "righteous" I will be accepted by the LORD.
• Therefore, I must make sure, no matter what the rest of my life looks like, that I keep doing the right things at the right times.

It is a temptation for us today and it was a temptation for those living under the Mosaic Law in the Old Testament.

But that's not what the LORD was looking for back then and it's not now. If you read the Old Testament, you see that the nation of Israel was repeatedly rebuked for checking boxes with unchecked hearts that were totally uninterested and unmoved.

This proverb can serve, if we allow it, as a great reminder that the LORD would rather have me live a life of righteousness and justice rather than just checking the box.

• He isn't impressed with my Sunday church attendance if I cheat in my business practices on Monday.
• He's not moved by philanthropy if I'm squandering the rest of my resources on ensuring my bed is well feathered.
• He's not putting my name on the all-star list if I can quote a bunch of Bible but am constantly short, snippy and disrespectful to my wife, children, co-workers and partners.
• He's not giving me a merit badge of morality if I boycott Bud Light or Fifty Shades of Grey but continually give in to excess.

It starts with relationship. My behavior should be informed by my relationship with God; but it is never the basis of my relationship with God.

See also Micah 6:6-8

6 “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” 8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?