Worship deficient in either spirit or truth is something less than true worship. But God must still be worshiped. Intellectual truth and emotional desire can carry us only so far. At some point, a commitment must be made, and kept diligently.
Made in the image of a God who is perfect love, we flourish only when we love Him rightly. If we fail to do so, we may still know some sort of love in this world, but it will be our undoing. “Love is the fire of life; it either consumes or purifies.”
What does it mean to pursue the love of Christ? More than our pursuing Him, it means allowing ourselves to be pursued by Him. It’s the choice to accept His benevolent will, ceasing to run away from the great love that He has desired to give us.
The God who calls us to repentance is calling us simply to let go of the “useless things” that have been holding us back. The things we’re asked to leave out of our lives are merely our liabilities, things that in the long run can only hurt us.