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?”
Zechariah 7:5 NIV
In Zechariah 7:5, the Lord poses a profound and unsettling question through the prophet: “When you fasted and mourned…for the past seventy years, was it really for Me that you fasted?”
These words pierce through centuries and still confront us today. They remind us that we can immerse ourselves in religious routines for years—even decades—yet all the while miss the heart of what truly matters to God.
The people of Israel had been faithful in their observance. For seventy long years, they fasted and mourned with consistency. They weren’t negligent in their rituals. Their commitment was evident, yet the Lord was not impressed. Why? Because He was not the centre of it all.
God’s concern was not the longevity of their fasting, nor the outward consistency of their religious practices. His question revealed something deeper—He was examining the motive behind their devotion. The people had been doing the right thing outwardly, yet inwardly they had drifted. Their hearts were no longer aligned with the One they claimed to serve.
It’s a sobering truth: religious activity does not always equate to spiritual intimacy. One can engage in fasting, prayer, and even acts of service, and yet heaven may not acknowledge any of it if the motive is wrong. This isn’t because God is indifferent, but because He desires truth in the inward parts (Psalm 51:6). He is seeking those who genuinely turned their hearts towards Him.
This divine question—“Was it really for Me?”—demands our honest reflection. Have we been doing what we do for God, or other reasons entirely? Was our fast birthed out of a deep hunger to know Him, or was it simply tradition? Were our prayers heartfelt cries, or mechanical recitations? Have we been more concerned with ticking spiritual boxes than with encountering the living God?
Sometimes we can become so accustomed to our religious patterns that we forget to stop and examine the posture of our hearts. But God does not overlook the heart. He weighs it (Proverbs 21:2). When He brings specific instructions or correction, how do we respond? Are we teachable? Are we tender?
Jesus echoed this same warning in Matthew 7:21: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.” This is not meant to spark fear, but to invite a deeper, more authentic walk with Him. It is an invitation to move beyond appearances into true communion.
So we must ask ourselves: If we lived seventy years thinking we were serving God, only to discover in the end that He was never the object of our worship—what would it profit us? How tragic would it be to miss the point after all that effort?
Let this moment be a call to realign. Let it stir a fresh hunger in our hearts to know God, to love Him sincerely, and to serve Him with pure motives. May our fasting, our prayers, our worship, and our entire lives be truly for Him.
As we journey forward, let us give careful attention to our ways. Let us seek His will above all else. Let us pursue Him not for tradition’s sake, but out of genuine desire to know and glorify Him.
And may our lives, in every season and every expression of devotion, echo a single, heartfelt response to His question: Yes, Lord—this was really for You.