Have you learned to love? This question continues to play in my spirit. Have I learned to love the amazing God I serve? Have I learned to love the one He places in front of me? Have I learned to love the one that annoys me? The one that doesn't look good? The one that doesn't smell good? Have I learned how to love and see people how He sees them? I know the answer to most of these questions is no. I still allow my fears and insecurities to hold me back. I allow what others think about me to place a reserve on me so I do not worship God with complete abandonment and freedom.
David danced and praised God so exuberantly that he danced right out of his clothes. He became extremely undignified in front of everybody as he just let loose in his praise for his great God. May I become more like that! May I begin to praise God with complete abandonment. May I become extremely vulnerable before God and with others. May I learn to love and see people like He sees them. May the very cry of my heart continually be more and more and more of you so that when others touch me the Holy Spirit would just ooze out of me.
May we learn to love God more each and every day and may we learn to completely love the one in front of us as He loves them.
Be blessed and encouraged today as you continually draw nearer to God.
You ever get a word from God, just one word, that He wants you to understand better? For me that word was worship. For all those who know me, you know I absolutely love music. I could probably listen to it 24/7. Give me some amazingly anointed praise and worship music and I am in heaven. But as much as I can enter into worship with music and enter into His presence in the process God was attempting to show me a deeper level of worship, a more intimate level or worship.
I believe God was and still is trying to show me that worship is more than a song I sing unto Him. Worship needs to become my life style, that I need to start worship Him in all things. Worship Him when people don't treat me the way I feel I should be treated. Worship Him when I feel rejected by others. Worship Him when I am struggling on my job and am begging Him for a new one. Worship Him when the world seems to be falling apart around me. In other words worship Him at all times. The bible says let His praises continually be in my mouth (see psalms 34:1).
To begin the journey of discovery what true worship is I thought knowing the definition of the word could be important. The definitions I found online were extremely lacking as to what I believe God desires true worship to be. Worship is more than a song service on Sunday mornings. It is more than just giving reverence to God, it is more than just kissing the King of Kings feet or ring. All of those definitions just feel so distant, sterile, and cold.
While the English definition of the word was lacking I looked up the Hebrew definition of the word for the Psalm referenced above (Psalm 34:1). The word praise in this verse is Tehillah-to sing hallal, a new song, a hymn of spontaneous praise glorifying God in song. So next I needed to understand Hallal-to praise, to make a show or rave about, to glory in or boast upon, to be clamorously foolish about you adoration of God. Excited yet? It gets better. Here is the definition for the word bless in this verse: Barak-to kneel or bow, to give reverence to God as an act of adoration, implies a continual conscious giving place to God, to be atuned to him and his presence.
So I believe to live a life of worship, we cannot just give the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords lip service. We cannot come into church Sunday morning and sing a few songs and call it worship. We cannot just come up to the King kiss His ring and walk away from him unchanged. I believe to live a life of worship we must begin with love. We need to realize how much God is completely and totally in love with each of us. As we accept and return this great love our worship begins to change. Our focus is not on the song we sing, how the band is playing, etc. We begin to focus and gaze at the one we love. Worship becomes more than a song, it becomes our heart cry as we draw near to our beloved. We begin to long for more of Him and more of His presence. Song of Solomon is such a beautiful illustration of how our love to God should be. Our hearts should be lovesick for the one we love. Our very longing and drive should be to be with Him. So as the song says, Take us back to the Heart of Worship. Take us to the place where all we long for is you and more of you. Just close your eyes and picture your saviors face before you. When you see His eyes looking down at you shining forth with such an amazingly great love it will forever change you.
I leave you with is Psalm from the Passion Translation. Let your praise and worship become totally undignified.
Make His praise Glorious!
Psalm 47 Passion Translation
Go ahead and celebrate! Come on and clap your hands everyone!
Shout to God with the raucous sounds of joy!
The Lord God Most High is astonishing, awesome beyond words!
He's the formidable and powerful King over all the earth!
He's the One who conquered the nations before us
And placed them all under our feet.
He's marked out our inheritance ahead of time,
Putting us in the front of the line,
Honoring those He loves!
(Pause in His presence)
God arises with the ear-splitting shout of His people!
God takes the throne with the fanfare of trumpets!
Sing and celebrate! Sing some more, celebrate some more!
Sing your highest song of praise to our King!
For God is the Triumphant King,
The powers of earth are all His!
So sing your celebration songs of highest praise
To the Glorious Enlightened One!
Our God reigns over every nation!
He reigns on His holy throne over all!
All the nobles and princes,
The loving servants of the God of Abraham,
They all gather to worship!
Every warrior's shield is now lowered,
As surrender trophies before the King!
He has taken His throne,
High and lofty exalted over all!
Of course what would this blog be without a song. Just soak in His presence as you listen to this.
