God's Call to a Life of Worship

-
"After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen."
‭‭Revelation‬ ‭7:9-12‬ ‭KJV‬‬

Are you seeking a renewed and deeper relationship with your Savior? This was me a couple of weeks ago. My life felt mundane and empty. Even though I religiously followed my daily routine in God's word with consistent prayer life, the Christian walk felt routine, with marginal passion and excitement. It just didn't feel right, and my heart's cry was for God to bring me back to a deepened relationship with Him and a renewed passion in my Christian walk. Perhaps, you can relate to this experience, and your Christian walk has felt like going through the motions and checking off boxes. If so, then come alongside as I share what God revealed to me in the midst of these struggles.

When you have genuinely cried out to God, yearning for a renewed and deeper relationship with Him, He answers. Because at that point, you are making room for devotion to Him. With so many things craving our attention on a constant basis, we need to make intentional efforts to keep our hearts from being tainted with diverted devotion. And the Holy Spirit is our helper when it comes to this. In "The Cost of Discipleship," Dietrich Bonhoeffer says 'Our hearts have room only for one all-embracing devotion, and we can only cleave to one Lord.' Once our hearts' devotion is only to our Lord and Maker, He comes into the situation, He shines His light into your heart and He brings us to that deeper relationship with Him and draws us to a place of unconditional worship. 

And our worship of Him is unconditional because of who He is, Our Creator, who is worthy of our worship. It is important to recognize that our unconditional worship can only happen after we have had an encounter with our Saviour. Beloved in Christ, you cannot worship what you do not know. I cannot emphasize it enough, but to get to the point of deeper worship of your Maker, it's essential to have an encounter with Him. The Hebrew word for worship is "shachah," which means to fall prostrate or bow down. And really, it does not matter where you worship Him. It can happen at Church, at home, at the office or even at the store, or when on the road. Listen to what our Lord Jesus Christ said about worship during His encounter with the Samaritan woman:

"The woman said to Him, "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship." Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."
‭‭John‬ ‭4:19-24‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

The earlier scripture we read from Revelation 7:9-12 makes clear that the heavenly choir will be composed of all true believers, and we will sing day and night! Meaning NONSTOP! In Romans 12:1, Paul admonishes us to present ourselves as a living sacrifice to God, meaning a life of complete devotion to our Lord, and that is our true worship to God. This means service of any kind in the Church, at our jobs, neighborhoods, homes, marriages, parenting, friendships must all stem from a heart of devotion to our God. Without a heart full of devotion to God, these services are meaningless. The following scriptures are illuminating:

"You also do this: You cover the altar of the Lord with tears as you weep and groan, because he no longer pays any attention to the offering nor accepts it favorably from you. Yet you ask, "Why?" The Lord is testifying against you on behalf of the wife you married when you were young, to whom you have become unfaithful even though she is your companion and wife by law. No one who has even a small portion of the Spirit in him does this. What did our ancestor do when seeking a child from God? Be attentive, then, to your own spirit, for one should not be disloyal to the wife he took in his youth. "I hate divorce," says the Lord God of Israel, "and the one who is guilty of violence," says the Lord who rules over all. "Pay attention to your conscience, and do not be unfaithful."
‭‭Malachi‬ ‭2:13-16‬ ‭NET‬‬

"When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. "Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, Learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow."
‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭1:15-17‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

"Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world."
‭‭James‬ ‭1:27‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

"By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him."
‭‭I John‬ ‭3:16-19‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Have you ever wondered why God rejected Cain's sacrifice but accepted Abel's offering (Genesis 4)? Because Abel offered a sacrifice that was fitting for a King, but Cain's was offered half-heartedly. Beloved in Christ, if we want God to accept our sacrifice of worship, we need the help of the Holy Spirit to live right, be generous, and fight injustice. Therefore, as we enter into the year 2022, I challenge you to offer yourself as a living sacrifice to God, which is our true act of worship, and watch God's presence infuse your Christian walk, as He brings joy and makes you passionate for His work! 

May God bless and keep us in 2022!


References
  • Bonhoeffer, D. (2012). The cost of discipleship. Simon and Schuster. 
  • The Holy Bible.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Affliction Shall Not Rise A Second Time

-
The last few weeks of 2017 has been rough for my family, both at the physical and spiritual levels. In a bid to unravel the root cause of one of the many issues I was dealing with, which seemed like a repetitive cycle, I prayed and asked God to reveal why I was facing this particular issue again. God seemed silent, and so I wondered if it was due to something I had done wrong. A scripture came to mind after spending time in prayer. But I couldn't recall where in the Bible to locate this scripture. What I remember was, " this affliction shall not resurrect a second tim e." Typically, I would google a phrase from what I recall to see if I could locate it. However, in this instance, I didn't think much about it. After worrying about the situation and about God's silence for a while, I decided to commit to fasting and prayer. During the wait on God, the scripture came once again, but this time, through a sermon. The sermon was one preached by the late Archbishop Bens...
Read more

Overcoming the Lust of the Eyes

-
One scripture that has had a profound impact on my life since I gave my life to Jesus Christ, is 1 John 2:15-17. We read: 1Jn 2:15-17 KJV (15) Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (16)   For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. (17) And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. At the age of about 12 years, my young but curious mind longed to know the heart of the Father and live to please Him. So for a while, after I chanced upon this scripture, I panicked. This was because I had become so accustomed to being dependent on many things of the world to the extent that to me, there was a very thin line between ‘love’ and ‘need’ for those worldly things. Notice that the scripture mentions three types of temptations th...
Read more

Unlocking God's blessings

-
In my walk with the Lord over the last 27 years, I have come to understand certain key principles about unlocking God's blessings in our lives. I believe that these key principles, though not exhaustive, are necessary for every believer to know and understand, as we navigate life here on earth. I have often come across Christians who tell me, "I have prayed every kind of prayer but no sign of God's blessings." If you are one of those then come along with me as we review God's word especially in this critical area for the believer.  Prayer First, I would like to point out that while prayer is very important in the life of a believer, unlocking God's blessings goes beyond prayer. It is important for the believer in Christ to understand that the keys for unlocking God's blessings can be revealed only when we ask the Holy Spirit to lead us in finding them in the hidden treasures of God's word. I have made it a practice to ask the Holy Spirit to r...
Read more