Godliness is Not Geographical!
God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth.” John 4:24.
I must remember that my relationship with Father God is not determined by a certain place. Godliness is not produced by topography. Man builds himself tremendous, large cathedrals thinking that this impresses Father God and proves their holiness. This is exactly what Jesus confronted with the religious leaders of His day.
Jesus vividly made this point to the woman at the well (John 4:4). She was emphatic about Mount Gerizim: the place where men ought to worship” (John 4:20). Jesus replied that it did not matter where she worshiped, it was how to worship that she needed to be correct about. The house of worship is in spirit, that is, and being properly tuned to God spiritually.
Jeremiah stated in his parable regarding the ripe and the spoiled figs. (Jeremiah 24). The good figs were the Jews, who had been taken to Babylonia, while the rotten figs were the Jews who remained in the holy land.
The parable ends forever the sin of place. Babylon was supposed to be the evil place, Judah, the good. But that was not true of the figs, for the rotten ones were in the good place; the good ones were in the rotten place.
How this speaks to my heart just now! Babylon with all its evils did not corrupt the captive Jews. Why? Because the right kind of geography was inside of them, not outside. Their hearts were right though their surroundings were evil. It was exactly the reverse with the Judean Jews, whose hearts were wrong though they were surroundings were right.
How often I have blamed my friends, my family, my job, or my environment for hindering my progress with God. False! The blame lies in my own negligent heart. The battle is one or lost within me. Babylon can become my purest heaven or Judea, my deep as hell, depending upon the state of my heart. The Lord God said in His Word that Jesus was a tender plant in a dry desert. (Isaiah 53:2). Father God, you want me to make sure to be the opposite of my surroundings, a touch of heavenly beauty in a barren land.