Tag: Mental Health

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Worship

Thankful

Let’s be honest. Do we like being around someone who is always an ungrateful grump? Who never sees anything good in anyone or anything?

A true worshiper is thankful. It will be very difficult to worship God if one is not grateful.

We read in Psalm 50:14 (NLT) “Make thankfulness your sacrifice to God.” I love how Spurgeon describes this Scripture as “thankful adoration before the Lord.”

Oh, to simply and purely adore Him, to stand in awe of Him.

Recently, we held an anointed and powerful worship and prayer night at a place that we had never imagined possible. The next morning, as I was sitting at my desk, I was literally overcome with gratitude and amazement of who our Lord is and what He had just accomplished. I stopped typing, stood up from my desk, lifted my hands and my face towards heaven, and with tears streaming down, I cried out to Him, “I simply stand in awe of You, Lord God!”

Psalm 48:9 (NLT) says, “O God, we meditate on your unfailing love as we worship in your temple.” It is interesting to note that both thankfulness in Psalm 50:14 and worship in Psalm 48:9 is the same Hebrew word: todah. which means “an extension of the hand, adoration, confession, praise, thanks (thanksgiving offering).”

And Psalm 147:7 instructs us to “Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving [todah].” Let us commit to doing this.

As we are filled to overflowing with gratitude to our incredible, faithful God, it becomes a delight, an absolute joy, to worship Him with thanksgiving and cheerful, gratified hearts!

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Worship

Front and Center

May we pause and ask ourselves truthfully what is front and center in our life.

Our house? Our fancy vehicle? Our garage full of expensive toys? Our hobby? Our job? Ourselves? Our image? Our spouse? Our children? Politics? Television and/or electronic devices? Finances? Can we honestly ask ourselves what we focus on most of the time throughout the day?

We are told in Mark 12:30 to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” Doesn’t that sound like total commitment, being intentionally focused on the Lord our God?

Search us, oh God!

Worship is loving God, and worship puts God front and center.

David set his heart and soul to seek the Lord as we see in Psalm 27:8; 105:4; and 119:2, 10.

In 1 Chronicles 16:11, David admonishes us to “Seek the Lord . . . seek His face evermore!”

He so knew the great importance of this, that when he was old and appointing his son Solomon to be king over Israel, David specifically instructed Solomon: “Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God” (1 Chron. 22:19).

How can we do this without putting God front and center, with our mind, heart, and soul solely focused on Him, and only Him? We must fully grasp that He alone is worthy of all our attention, all our affection, and all our adoration.

These are not simply words—they are reverential acts of an awestruck bride absolutely overwhelmed with the awesome wonder of the splendor and glory of our majestic King.

Oh, Jesus, forgive me for making so many other people, things and events in my life more important than You. May I purposefully and passionately set my heart and soul to seek You, Lord, and make You number one in my life! I can give so much more to my spouse, my children, my job, my church, my city and my state and country when I have spent intimate time beholding Your face every day in sweet communion with my Best Friend, the Lover of my soul.  

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Worship

Worship GOD in Adoring Embrace

We are instructed in Psalm 2:11 (CSB) to “Serve the Lord with reverential awe and rejoice with trembling.” Per Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary, one of the meanings of “serve” in the Hebrew is worship, or be a worshiper.

The Amplified Bible reflects “Serve the Lord with reverent awe and worshipful fear; rejoice and be in high spirits with trembling”. And the Message Bible states “Worship GOD in adoring embrace, Celebrate in trembling awe.” 

Isn’t it interesting one of the ways to serve God is to worship Him – to be a worshiper! And, with “reverential awe”, or as the Message reflects “adoring embrace”. Oh, how our hearts should be overwhelmed with joy as we worship the Lover of our soul with reverent awe and adoring embrace.

Charles Spurgeon says, “To worship God is to gaze upon Him with adoring amazement and rapturous love.” Please pause and meditate on this statement for a minute, or a lifetime. That is pure, unadulterated worship—the kind of worship Jesus seeks from those who love Him and desire Him above all else.

And to worship Him rejoicing with trembling. The word “rejoice” is mentioned 192 times in the KJV, which means it should be a very important word to us and our lifestyle. God knows what is best for His children; and He knows it is good, very good, for us to live a lifestyle rejoicing in our Lord and Savior; our best Friend.

Oh, Jesus, how can we not worship You? To spend our time gazing upon You with adoring amazement and rapturous love. You are our hearts one desire, so may we spend our life in Your presence, beholding Your face, in reverential awe and rejoicing with trembling. Oh, how we love you Jesus. 

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Worship

I Stand in Awe of You, Number 2

Do we take the time every day to stop what we are doing or thinking about—and simply and intently stand in awe of our great and majestic God? To purposely direct our attention on the glorious splendor of His majesty as we are instructed in Psalm 145:5.

We are told in Psalm 33:8 “Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.” And in verse 9 we are told why: “For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.”

What would it look like, and how would it affect our daily lives, if we took the time for a daily walk and simply admire the grass before us, or behold all the different magnificent trees, or gently touch a flower or two to really examine what our great God created – for us to truly enjoy?

Or to gaze upon the heavens and marvel as we behold the formation of clouds and the brightness of the sun. To watch in fascination as the sun goes down and the moon and stars make their appearance in all their beauty. 

Or to look into the eyes of your beloved, or friend, or a child or baby, and pause in wonder and amazement of our God who created them. To lift up our hands in awe and pure adoration of our wonderful, loving Jesus.

We must understand our Lord, who really does care for us, has instructed all of us to stand in awe of Him for a reason. It will change our attitude; it will change our perspective—and it will change our heart—for the better.

We will have a deeper respect for His creation – and we will fall deeper in affectionate love with the Lover of our souls.

Oh Jesus, You know what is best for Your children. You know we need to push pause from our busyness, stop, lift our hands to heaven, and offer up unhindered, unrestrained, unapologetic worship of our Creator who loves us so. Oh, how can we not worship You!

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Worship

I Stand in Awe of You

With a heart full of adoration and amazement of his great and awesome God, David penned Psalms 33:8 “Let all the earth fear the Lord [revere and worship Him]; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him” (AMP).

There countless reasons to revere, worship and stand in awe of God, but David mentions what he was meditating on when he wrote the above statement.

In Psalms 33:6 he pondered on “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all their host by the breath of His mouth.” And in verse 9, he continues with “For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.”

Oh Jesus, may we spend more time pausing and pondering on the absolute beautiful, stunning and breathtaking creation that You spoke into being. And as we do, may it propel us into unashamed, unabashed worship as we humbly stand in awe of You. Oh, how can we not worship You?

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Worship

Jehovah-Shalom

With all the chaos and confusion, the bitterness, division and hate, the anger and tumultuous times in our land, we do not need to add fuel to the fire. We do not need finger-pointing, to give tit for tat, or repay anger with anger.

No, we need Jehovah-shalom (Yahweh-Shalom), which means “The Lord is Peace.”

We first see Jehovah-Shalom in Judges 6:24, where there was anything but peace in the land.

But God! There is a great benefit in knowing, praying, praising, and worshiping His name Jehovah-Shalom, the Lord of Peace, the Prince of Peace (Isa. 9:6).

Oh, let us be still and draw near to hear (Eccl. 5:1; Isaiah 34:1) our Jehovah-Shalom whisper to us “Peace be with you; do not fear” as spoken to Gideon in Judges 6:23.

Ephesians 2:14 tells us Jesus is our peace. He promises to give us His peace in John 14:27.

We are informed in 1 Corinthians 14:33 that He is a God of peace. In Romans 16:20 we are told our God of peace will crush Satan under our feet.

We are encouraged in Philippians 4:9 that the God of peace will be with us.

Oh, to intimately know and ardently worship our Prince of Peace, Jehovah-Shalom, as we bask in His peace that He so freely gives, so we may authentically display His peace to a hurting world that so desperately needs to know our Jehovah-Shalom.

Jesus calls us to be peacemakers for a purpose! Our world needs true Holy Spirit-filled peacemakers carrying, displaying, and dispersing peace everywhere we go. Blessed are the peacemakers.

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Worship

A Worshiper of God

In John 9, we read about a man born blind who met Jesus and was healed. The challenge to the Pharisees was that it happened on the Sabbath. So, they called the man in for interrogation and informed him that the man who healed him could not be a Godly person, because he healed someone on the Sabbath, which was against their rules.

To that, the healed blind man declared “…if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, He hears him” (John 9:31). Strong’s Greek Dictionary reflects the Greek word used here for “worshiper of God” is theosebes, and means “reverent of God, pious, worshiper of God.”

What an encouraging and inspiring word for us! His Word informs us that if we are a “worshiper of God” and do His will – God hears us! Yes, Jesus hears our cries for help, our pleas for intervention, our quiet moans for friendship, our prayers and supplications, our pleading of intercession for others, and yes, our exuberant shouts of praise and adoration to the Lover our of souls. He does gladly hear us!

Thank you, Father, for Your Word that instructs and enlightens us that You gladly and intently hear a worshiper of God who does Your will. Oh, may we diligently and earnestly seek to be passionate, heart-felt worshipers who are joyful and faithful in doing Your will.

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Worship

Why Worship?

My wife and I had a pastor many years ago who would say he thought of worship as “worth-ship,” that God was worth our worship, that He alone is worthy of all our worship. 

David knew God is worthy of our worship. He wrote, “I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised” (Ps. 18:3). In Psalm 29:2, he cries out: “Give unto the Lord the glory due to His name; worship the Lord.”

Philippians 2:9 tells us, “Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name.” 

If God highly exalted Jesus, should we not highly exalt Him with our worship? 

We also worship God because “He is Holy,” as written in Psalm 99:3, 5, 9, and 22:3 “You are holy.” And just in case there is any doubt, God Almighty Himself declares “I am the Lord, your Holy One” in Isaiah 43:1 (see also Isa. 57:15; Ex.15:11).

We are actually instructed to worship Him “because He is your Lord, worship Him” (Ps. 45:11b). Psalm 95:6 admonishes us with, “Oh come, let us worship and bow down”, and also “Oh, worship the Lord” in Psalm 96:9.

We read the desire of His heart for you and me in Psalm 22:27: “And all the families of the nations shall worship before Him.” Also, “All nations whom You have made shall come and worship before You, and shall glorify Your name” (Ps. 86:9). 

Our Father knows what is best for His children. He knows what keeps our heart in love with His heart. He really does want us to exalt Him and worship Him, for He alone is worthy, He alone is holy.

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Worship

The Unexpected Worshipper

We read a very interesting and enlightening account of an unexpected worshiper in Luke 17:11-19. As Jesus entered a Samaritan village on this way to Jerusalem, ten lepers called out to Him to be healed. As they obeyed Jesus’ command, they noticed they were healed.

We read verse 15 where, “one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan.”

Oh Jesus, may we glorify You and worship You as this humbled and radically touched stranger did. May we glorify You with a loud voice; fall down on our face; at Your feet; and with an overflowing grateful heart; offer our unashamed, unbridled worship to You.

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Worship

What is Worship?

Strong’s Concordance says the word worship means “prostrate; homage to royalty or God; bow down; fall down; humbly beseech; to do reverence; worship.”

Does this describe our experience in worship?

We saw a great example of “homage to royalty” during Queen Elizabeth’s funeral services. Much of the world was totally enraptured with the grandeur of the event. The structure, the detail, the colors, the sounds, the music, all the Scripture reading, the honor, the respect, the value placed on someone. Could we learn another aspect of worship from this? Do we long to be enraptured with the grandeur of our great and awesome Creator God? Could this change our perspective of worship?

Jesus, we ask You to draw us into a deeper expression of meaningful worship of You, our Savior, the Lover of our souls. Our heart’s desire is to ardently come before Your glorious altar worshiping You from a position of honor, value, and deep respect, for only You are truly worthy of our worship.