Isaiah 29:13 These people come to Me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. (NIV)

At some point in my life, I realized that there would be a time when I would stand before the Lord God Almighty and give an account for what kind of husband I was, what kind of father, what kind of son, what kind of brother, what kind of man I was.  I wanted to be able to say that I was the best that I could be. However, I knew, in my heart, that I could not honestly do that.

So I began to try to aspire to something better.  I studied God’s Word and I attempted to say and do the things that seemed honorable.  It was a struggle.  There are many reasons for this struggle, but ultimately and sadly the underlying reason was I did not set my heart to come close to God’s.  At least, I didn’t all the time.  At times, that made my goal little more than lip service.

There is an old story about two little boys that saw the one’s grandmother reading the Bible. The first boy said, “Why does your grandmother read the Bible all the time?” The second boy replied, “I think she’s studying for her final exam.”

As I have gotten older, I have become aware of my own mortality.  With that came the additional observation that each of us has a very limited time to get our mouths and actions, but mostly our heart in the right place.  As David wrote in the Psalms, “Create in me a clean heart, O God: and renew a right spirit within me.”