Today I am pondering the worship of God. The Bible in the book of Philippians chapter 2 verses 9 through 11 says this ...
God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (ESV)
As I consider the challenge we have received from Jesus to "Love God", I begin to consider what that means, how do I do that? My mind turns to passages like the one from Philippians above and I think about worship. To Love God must include worship. If we Love god we will demonstrate our Love in worship. This will include our Sunday morning service, our singing, our prayer, our reading of the Bible, our hearing the teaching and preaching of the Word, but also a whole lot more.
My Love for God is to display the Lordship of Jesus in my life. This is about a life of worship, not just a time of worship. Everything I do is to be in worship, displaying my Love for God. My thoughts conclude that this must be a part of my Love of God.
Then I realize that I do not measure up to this. I am not perfect in living a life of worship. I am not even close. I cannot even perfect a time of worship. I find myself distracted and wound up in the wrong mindset. Too often treating worship as something that "feeds me". Something that is about what "I like". Yet it is not supposed to be about me at all. It is supposed to be about God. About worshiping Him. About His honor and glory. Not about my preference, my style, my comfort. Worship, like my life, is to be all about Love for God.
And so I sense conviction. Conviction that I need to humbly walk in repentance for my self-centered attitudes. Conviction that I need to seek to Love God more and more. Conviction that the more I Love God the more He will change me. The more God changes me, for His purposes, then I will be able to glorify Him and honor Him better, living out my Love for God.
So I come to a conclusion that I need humble myself. So that I can Love God more which should result in glorifying God in a life of worship.
What about you?
Pastor Bruce
Many things run through my mind all day and sometimes all night. Maybe you are a lot like me? Lots to do and not enough time it seems to do it all. Yet we continue on and find ourselves as slaves to the most "urgent" item on our todo list or the emergency that walked through the door. Yet we know that this is not the way life should be. We recognize that this continuum is not healthy. So what do we do?
Well most of us decide to plan out time better, make better lists, take a time management class or get more organized. Yet almost always we find ourselves back where we started. Maybe we need to learn from God and His Word. In the Bible one of the first principles we learn is rest. In Genesis after God creates everything, He creates a 7th day for us to rest. The rest principle is not just about a day off, it is far more than time freed up. It is about us not focusing on the busy things, not being distracted by regular life. Our rest needs to be directed toward the One who can truly give us rest ... God. If we fill our rest time with other "busy" things that are not considered your regular work, then you will have some fun maybe but you probably won't rest. Rest is where we begin to find balance in our lives, that is how God made us and it is where we need to start.
The second thing is that we need intentional time with our Creator, the God who made us and knows us better than we know ourselves. Prayer is a key part of this relationship. We need to be a people of prayer more than we need to be a people who climb the ladder of success. Martin Luther the great Church reformer who dies hundreds of years ago once said "I pray 3 hours every morning but I am getting so busy, maybe I should start praying 4 hours every morning". This sounds counter productive and yet we are not to live in our own wisdom but the wisdom from God. you will not find this wisdom in your busy task filled day but instead you will find it in communion with the one who has such wisdom to give.
So I urge you today to join with me to put the important things first. God should be first in our lives, and that needs to be reflected in our time with Him. For that time to be effective we need to be a people of Prayer and the Word. God will work in us to help us meet the challenges of the day, do not worry, take proper care of your family, be properly involved in your Church, and when you are at work - work hard to honor God in all you do.
Let us press on together, but we need not set a fast pace on the less important things.
Pastor Bruce
