April 26, 2010 – Worship, Part 4

We were made to worship…we are made by God for God.  Like Jesus explained to the Woman at the well we are to worship in spirit and in truth.  Worship isn’t a place or just an action it is a lifestyle.

We all know how easy it is to worship God when the feeling is there.

We all know that when we get a revelation of who God is or what He has done in our lives that worship automatically flows out of us.  Its easy to worship then – we are worshipful beings, but if we all now know that we are to worship God with our lives – all the time, in spirit and in truth, for who he is and what he has done what do we do when the feeling isn’t there?  What are we to do when we are hurt or in pain?  When the answer hasn’t come yet?  We all know that dry times come in our spiritual journey – what do we do when he feels far away from us?  When we are confused or worried or stressed?  When we are in the valley – how are we to worship

Ps. 88 says this…1 O LORD, God of my salvation, I cry out to you by day. I come to you at night.  2 Now hear my prayer; listen to my cry. 3 For my life is full of troubles, and death draws near. 4 I am as good as dead, like a strong man with no strength left. 5 They have left me among the dead, and I lie like a corpse in a grave.  I am forgotten, cut off from your care.  6 You have thrown me into the lowest pit, into the darkest depths.  7 Your anger weighs me down; with wave after wave you have engulfed me.  8 You have driven my friends away by making me repulsive to them.  I am in a trap with no way of escape.  9 My eyes are blinded by my tears.  Each day I beg for your help, O LORD;  I lift my hands to you for mercy… 13 O LORD, I cry out to you.

How are we to live a life of worship when life sometimes brings us to these places – the valley.  Three things I want you to do to be successful at living a life of worship in every season, including the valley.

#1 – Reach out

Reach out to the Lord? Yes, of course but the first thing that you and I should do when walking through a dark time in our lives is to reach out to someone else.  To find someone else who may be going through a valley and help them through it.  Now we can sit and wait for God to deliver and He will because He is faithful but the whole time God is looking for you to live worship.  The best way to do that is to look for the pain and hurt all around us.  When we get our eyes off of us and our circumstances and reach out to others our freedom comes.  Your freedom is found in bringing other people freedom.

#2 Look up

Ps. 121:1 I will lift up my eyes to the hills – from whence comes my help

It is important to point out what the Psalmist is really saying – he is looking up because he knows that is where his hope is coming.  There is faith in lifting up his eyes – there is anticipation and expectancy.  I am looking to those hills because that is where the cavalry will arrive, where my reinforcements are coming.  Like Peter while he was walking on water with Jesus as long as his eyes were fixed on Him he was ok – it was when he looked at what he was doing (the storm, the waves, the water, his circumstances) that he got into trouble.  In fixing our eyes on him – 2 things happen – One, he stays big on our display screen and two looking up does is it brings you peace.

Is. 26:3 – You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is focused on you because he trusts in you

#3 – Praise anyway

The children of Israel on more than one occasion where instructed to bring praise to God before the victory even came.  Now that takes some faith.  I mean sometimes, like Jericho, it was the strategy to victory – to bring praise before the answer was ever there.  That is looking to the hills with expectancy.  Begin thanking God for deliverance, the answer, the victory before it arrives.

Reach out, look up, praise anyway,

Jonathan

Tags: Jonathan Spuler

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