WORSHIP
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and
with all your mind.” Matthew 22:37
The chief end of man is to
be occupied with God over everything else. Open the heart to the love of God,
devote the will to the purpose of God, quicken the conscience by the holiness of
God, feed the mind on the truth of God, and in so doing, recognize this isn't
about us, it's all about Him.
Let's never forget; we're
to be focused on One. We should aim to worship Him actively, cheerfully,
relevantly, creatively, sacrificially, reverentially and wholeheartedly. Don't
hold back. Never be too comfortable to give your all to the Lord.
Of course this is only
possible when we realize that worship is the recovery, then rejoicing in our
first love for Him. It involves repentance and right attitude, brokenness and
desire, and requesting His compassion. But it's also a lot more.
Worship is forgetting our
dignity and remembering His Deity. It's hunger pangs in our hearts. It's about a
sacrifice of praise with a single intent - to attract God's attention. It's
breaking down the walls of separation between us and God. It's acts of penitence
which call on God to open the windows of Heaven. It's an invitation for God to
come down and be among us. It's remembering how God loves to be with His
children. It's intimacy with the Father. Like Bartimaeus, it's refusing to let
God pass by. It's wanting an encounter with God that we won't be able to get
over. And it's wanting nothing less than for God to reveal His face.
Furthermore, it must come
from men and women who know what it means to have "a broken spirit; a broken and
contrite heart" Psalm 51:17. That's essential. It's only when we worship the
Lord with an outpouring of a burning heart that He will show up in a tangible
and dynamic way. Worship should be the main course of everything we say or do.
For it's only when our worship is more than a warm up act, more than an
appetizer, and more than a curtain raiser that we'll truly get to meet Him.
So make sure your life is
characterized by intimacy with the Father, by a vibrant relationship with the
Son, and by a daily hosting of the Holy Spirit. For to stop short or settle for
anything less isn't good enough. We must desire more than thrills and chills.
More than holy goose-bumps. More than the smell of His fragrance. And more than
a temporary visitation. Ultimately, we must want to know Jesus in all His
vitality, glory and power - to pursue Him until we see Him face to face.
From “Seize the Day” by Rev. Lawson Murray
