Is It Really For Jesus?

A song based on Zechariah 7:1-12, which reads

"In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Kislev. The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-Melek, together with their men, to entreat the Lord by asking the priests of the house of the Lord Almighty and the prophets, “Should I mourn and fast in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?”

Then the word of the Lord Almighty came to me: “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted? And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves? Are these not the words the Lord proclaimed through the earlier prophets when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns were at rest and prosperous, and the Negev and the western foothills were settled?’”

And the word of the Lord came again to Zechariah: “This is what the Lord Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.’

“But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backsand covered their ears. They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the Lord Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the Lord Almighty was very angry."

It's important for us to ask the Lord what He thinks about our spiritual habits and traditions, like the people of Bethel did. Things are not automatically from the Lord because they seem ok and we've always done them. He is a person, and He has specific desires. Our own plans will always fall short. Our flesh only gives birth to flesh, and our stony hearts only give birth to more stone. Jesus alone gives us life.

Verse 1

Is our fruit from Jesus?

Is all our life in Him?

Are the streams we live by

The streams of His grace?

Every man will do

What is right in his own eyes

Unless he goes to God

To receive his life

So whatever you do

Chorus

Ask yourself this:

Is it really for Jesus?

Is it really for the Lord?

'Cause flesh gives birth to flesh

And stone gives birth to stone

Until the Lord gives us life

And shows us the way to go

And then it will be, really, for Jesus.

Verse 2

All this fasting

And all this feasting

Don't matter much if they don't 

Come from the Lord

So come to your Shepherd

And learn of His ways

As Him how He

Wants to be served

And whatever you do (chorus)

Verse 3

Carry out justice

Show mercy and compassion

Do not oppress the widow

Or the orphan

Don't you oppress

The foreigner or the poor

And do not plot evil

And wait and listen to the Lord (chorus)