Spiritual dryness and a "Sacrifice" of praise

Matthew 12:43 (New King James Version)

“When an unclean spirit (demon) goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none."

The word rest is the Greek word anapausis which means "recreation". Now re-read the above scripture and substitute recreation for rest.....

So a good paraphrase for this would be:

Spiritual dryness is the playground of the devil.

Saul, when he was "caught" by Samuel the prophet with sheep and oxen that God had commanded to be slaughtered in the battle, made the excuse that , "Well, we saved them so we could offer them to God. It's all for Him anyway. It's for the purpose of offering a sacrifice to God and worship Him." But Samuel told Saul that obeying God was BETTER than sacrifice. He told Saul that God would not honor his sacrifice, because God is not in it.

Sometimes we wonder why we come to church and have to FORCE worship and we feel nothing.... could it be... that we live in the spiritual desert all week, Mon. through Sat., choosing NOT to obey God's commands and living how WE want to live, then come to church on Sunday and lift our hands to worship and we feel NOTHING... because God chooses not to honor our sacrifice because we have been going our own way all week? Just food for thought. Take it to your prayer closet... I KNOW I'll be taking it to mine, because it spoke to me loud and clear. God is so good. I want to please Him with my worship and with my life.

Here's a song that makes me think of this very message... check it out.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=09gTv-ldj4c
Blessings to you!