The importance of Worship

At the end of Bible study and discussion on the greatness of God, we are asked for prayer requests. When heads are bowed, some might begin with words of worship and thanksgiving, but most in the group begin their prayer with a list of what they want from God. 

I’ve been troubled about that. In recent years and for a reason I cannot remember, I started to print the words to familiar worship music and use those pages to begin praying after devotions. Worship sets my mind on the One I’m speaking with and chases away any selfishness that might pop up. It is easier to say, “Thy will be done” when my focus is on the goodness and wisdom of God. I have no right or reason to tell Him what to do, only to share the burdens on my heart and trust His power and grace to do what is best and that will bring Him glory.

For me, expressing worship is important, not only to keep my heart in the right attitude, but for those around me who listen. The Psalms are a huge evidence of the need to praise God.

Charnock identifies why I feel angst about lack of worship. He says, “Wants will spur us on to prayer, but a pure love to God can only spirit us to praise. We are more ready to reach out a hand to receive his mercies, than to lift up our hearts to recognize them after the receipt.”

He gives several reasons why praise is important. One is that all true blessings grow up from the pardon of sin. . . .   

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. (Psalm 103:2–5)

Guilt from sin binds me to thoughts of being punished, or fears for the punishment of others. I know that it also has the ability to fester ill health. It makes sense that instead of praying for a cure, sin should be confessed and when that is done, it takes away the power of sin to make me sick. I don’t know how to praise God for health if I cannot praise Him for renewing my soul.

Another reason to praise God besides being justified is that He continually works to set me apart for Himself. This is sanctification and Charnock says it is a sign of growth in grace when my songs include praise that He is changing me, sometimes with comfortable means and sometimes with sharp discipline. To express praise for both also expresses a deep love for Him and a delight in His work. Such praise sets my heart at rest over the stresses of life because it means I understand the why of them. Forgiveness and pardon fill me with inward peace, but sanctification fills me with a desire to follow this One who heals me in all ways, even when healing hurts.

The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all. (Psalm 103:19)

God is to be praised for His mercy but also His majesty and the height and extent of His authority. His goodness is not changed by my sinfulness or ignorance. His mercy flows from His sovereignty and no one can resist Him or reverse His will. This is reason for praise.

God’s majesty is the ground for my confidence. He is able to protect me from dangers, deliver me from distresses. Casting my eyes to Him I see a God who can perform what He promised. Saying so in my prayers builds my confidence that His ears hear and that He rules over all. There is nothing or no one that can make Him violate His promises or His will to show good to His people. 

Praise is incentive to obedience. Is this why it is not offered by some? His word says:

But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments. (Psalm 103:17–18)

Yet as Charnock says, obedience is not performance of a duty, but an eye lifted up to God as a great king. Praise reminds me of God on His throne and serving Him is a great honor. This is why Jesus said:

Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:9–10)

PRAY: Lord, a short ending to the thoughts You give are not a full expression of what You put in my heart. I’m grateful that You invite me to talk to You and listen to You. I leave this keyboard to sing praise and to put this concern and all other concerns into Your loving and capable hands. Work in my heart and fill it with praise, and take care of that need to praise You in all of us who know You. Enable us to acknowledge You and what You are and do — before we ask for more.

Thy Will be Done

I remember the first time I looked up the meaning of my name and discovered “Elsie means being consecrated to God.” Since then, other meanings come up but that one stuck because it filled me with wonder and delight.

The word “consecration” means to make or declare sacred, and sacred means holy, devoted to God, worthy of awe and respect. This is a lofty description and much more than anyone could ever deserve, so it makes me wonder why some people resist being consecrated to God?

Today’s reading says that some have a different definition of that word. One person said, “It means that all that is bright and pleasant in your life will be taken out of it and that every hard and sad thing you can conceive of will come into it. It means that you will have to do impossible things and that your ease and comfort will be gone forever.”

Obviously this shows a faulty understanding of God and His will, which is usually the root of any  misconception about Christian teaching. How is it that we can so misunderstand and misjudge our Lord, whose will can be nothing but goodness and love, since He himself is these and these only? Only because that old and sinful nature, plus the lies of the enemy are at play. This could be due to 1) not being in the Word of God, or not believing what we read, or 2) not recognizing or confessing our selfishness. How many times have I gone my own way only to find out how flawed it is!

When Jesus was asked how to pray, He began with:

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:9–10)

Praying for God’s will to be done is asking Him to make earth like heaven — and that is going to be a forever loss of ease and comfort? No one would want to go to heaven if they thought it was like that.
Furthermore, the Bible says: “This is the will of God, your sanctification…. (1 Thessalonians 4:3) Sanctification also means much the same as consecration. Either word refers to something God did when Christ came into my life:

And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption. (1 Corinthians 1:30)

It is also what Christ did so that I might be sanctified (or set apart) for Him: “And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.” (John 17:19)

How terribly sad that God’s people listen to that old nature or to Satan and become convinced of what is not true. How important to read and believe the truth about God and realize He is a joy-giver and not a joy-robber.

PRAY: Jesus, help me today to speak the truth in love and to be totally aware of and set free from any false ideas about You or Your will for my life and the lives of those I talk with.

Praying in God’s will

 

Mothers know the frustration of a crying baby that cannot tell her the problem that makes him cry. Many moms will say, ‘Oh, if you could only talk. Then I could help you.’

Is this something like the frustration felt when the Bible tells us: “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us” (1 John 5:14) and we have no idea what His will is, so we don’t know how to pray?

The difference is that God does talk to us. His will is revealed in His Word; we just need to read it. Well, there is more to it than mere reading. Jesus tied knowing the will of God with having a heart to do what it says:

If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. (John 7:17)

With obedience tied to revealed understanding, it makes sense that obeying what I already know is vital to knowing more. God will teach me, but if I’m not listening and doing what He says, then the lessons are either repeated or stopped and my life can grow stagnant.

“The word of the Lord [came] to Jeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem” (Daniel 9:2).

Jeremiah and Daniel both obeyed the Lord and both understood what He was going to do; the captivity of His people would last seventy years. These servants of God conformed their lives to His will and prayed accordingly. Their prayers, and the prayers of all God’s people are far more effective in the lives of humble, submissive hearts. Jesus is our example:

For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. (John 6:38)

I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. (John 17:4)

Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done. (Luke 22:42)

He teaches us the same thing in how we should pray: “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9–10).

Daniel read Jeremiah’s prophecy of seventy years in Babylonian captivity, accepted it as God’s will and began to pray for its fulfillment. This is not being resigned to fate but an active participation in God’s plan as He revealed it.

Note also that Daniel didn’t try to change God’s will, but did what he could to support it. The key to this is realizing God is not like a crying baby that cannot speak. He does speak and the more I read what He says AND do what He says, the more of His will is revealed to me and to each of His servants.

When I pray according to God’s will, I can be confident that He hears me and will grant my requests. 1 John 4:15 follows with: “And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.” (1 John 5:15) This ‘knowing’ is the knowing of faith, the confidence God gives to His people when we ask, believing what He says and cooperating with it.

Jesus, I’m excited to read this, excited to have the freedom to be in Your Word, and excited that You reveal or remind me of Your will each day so that I can pray it back to You. if there is any area in my life where my will is contrary to Yours, show me and enable the necessary changes.

READ: Revelation 22:6–21. This is God’s will. Read it carefully and several times, taking note of how I can better respond to Him, both in my life and in my prayers.