Here I Am To Worship

Sunday was a good day for me - Church was great, Sunday school was great, a nap was great, and visiting my parents was great! When we pulled up to my parent's house and stepped out of the car, I was hit with a familiar smell, one you never forget - it was cane syrup cooking! It was sweet and delightful. When I was young, my parents, and grandparents, and great grandmother (Letha) would all come to the house for a day of making syrup. The kids got to run around and play, drink fresh cane juice, and get all of the attention we wanted! After the first batch was ready, we enjoyed it with some homemade biscuits, hot out of the oven! Amazing how one sniff caused all of these memories to flood back!

Parker got down and ran off to play with his cousins - a little while later we burned a brush pile and all of the kids stood in amazement at the big flame! While watching Parker and feeling full and grateful, I started thinking of something Dean, our worship leader, said in the early service. He spoke of us needing to shift our paradigm of worship. We show up to church to get filled, to enjoy the service and the fellowship, to hear moving music - and those aren't bad things, we should experience these things with our brothers and sisters in Christ. But, have we lost the focus of why we are showing up to church in the first place? We were created to worship Him. Isaiah 43:21 says:

"This people I have formed for Myself: They shall declare My praise."

I felt a bit convicted because I do love to show up to our early worship service and listen to our worship team. I often close my eyes and sing to God - as if it were just me and Him and that fills me! So is that bad?; certainly not, but we have to remember why we are worshiping God - it is for Him, about Him, not us. In our own little world, we forget that it's not about us, it's about Him. I needed this reminder - I am worshiping God to give Him the praise He deserves, the praise He created me to give!

Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.  Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.  Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.  Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.  For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations. Psalm 100:1-5

Delight In Being a Child of God

Originally posted on: http://followme365.wordpress.com/

Delight In Being a Child of God

followme365 / 1 week ago October 27, 2013

A few weeks ago I made a post on my blog titled “Is Your Walk With Christ Lacking Delight?”. This was in response to our study guide that week. When I read Matthew 11:28-30 the words “come to Me” and “rest for your souls” spoke to me. I started reflecting on my life over the last year. It led me to John 10:10 where Jesus says “I have come that [you] may have life and have it more abundantly”. At that moment, I wasn’t feeling a light yoke or abundant life, I was feeling exhaustion. So I asked – what’s missing? I ended the post by saying I believed it to be total surrender – that we sometimes give lip service and continue trying to run our life our way.

As I studied last week’s lesson “Our Father” and this week’s lesson “Jesus Satisfies Our Desires” God began to further speak to me on delighting in Him. When I studied that lesson a few weeks ago and read those verses, I never once thought of God as Father – as myself His child. In Follow Me, Platt relates our relationship with God as our father to adoption. He speaks of his adoption of a son like this: “Clearly, when Caleb became our son, it wasn’t the end of the story. It was the beginning of an adventure in which Caleb would live as our son….Without question, although his status in our family is based on what a judge declared years ago, his life is based on our relationship every day as we play….” He goes on to say “This picture of joy in earthly adoption proves just a small glimpse of a far greater joy found in heavenly adoption. Without question our status before God was settled at the moment we turned from our sin and ourselves and trusted in Jesus as Savior and Lord. But our lives are based on the love relationship we enjoy and experience every moment of every day as God our Father saturates us as His children with His affection.”

Wow – that is something to delight in! Are we enjoying our relationship with our Father every day? I believe we all tend to get caught up in our desires and push Him to the side while we “handle” them. In Luke 11:11-13 Jesus says “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” He will take care of us! In Psalms 37:4 David says “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” We can delight in Him and satisfy our desires at the same time! Only He can fulfill!

In Christ,
Letha