The Heart of Worshipping God

Hello beloved of God,

  The beauty, power, and majesty of God are beyond anything else. The wonder of God is a culmination of everything good and righteous. I hope your week is starting out with many reasons to give God your praise and worship. Worship Him for the life you have and the anticipation of what He has planned for your future! Our understanding of God throughout Scripture and our personal relationship with Him shows us that He is our Father in Heaven, our Creator, our Redeemer, our Sustainer, and everything else that our hearts were created to desire.  The God of the universe is worthy of all my worship. Worship is a heart felt response that God hears from His children. It extends from my heart to His through His Holy Spirit. This is what we do when we truly love God. Will you give God your worship? He deserves it.

 Worship is a spiritual act of gratitude to God for who He is. Worship strengthens our connection with God and our spiritual walk with Him. Worship is not something done when you have other worries on your mind, or distractions. Worship is practiced when we are in the presence of God and we are reflecting on His Majesty. This is when we give our worship for all that He is to us, and all He is doing in this world.

   God’s first command is “You shall have no other gods before me.” Exodus 20:3 This is very important because if there are any other gods in our heart other than God, we are not putting God first. When other gods or idols are filling our hearts, we are not able to worship God the way we should. We are worshipping the thing we have first in our hearts, whatever that is. Who do you worship? The only secure choice is to worship God through Jesus Christ. Then we can know that we are walking each day with Him, secure in His arms of protection. Now that I know what it is like to walk with God each day, compared to what it was like to walk alone and insecure, I choose to walk with God because He loves me more than anyone else can. That alone is a reason to worship Him with all my heart, and all my strength.

  There are many ways we can worship God. We can spend time with Him by just thinking of Him and what He is doing in our life. We can talk with Him and listen to His response. We worship God by singing songs of praise and helping others to do the same. One of the greatest things we can do is to read His Word so we can know Him from His inspired Word. A very enjoyable way of worshipping God is focusing on Him all day long, not just an hour every Sunday morning. Every day we bring God worship by focusing on Jesus and His life that was lived for us.

   Let’s give God our praise and worship out of our appreciation for His nature and His worth, all day, everyday. Will you join me today and forever, as we worship God?

“Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs. Psalm 100:2

“…a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit and His worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth.” Matthew 2:2

“…I will praise you among the nations, O Lord; I will sing praises to your name.” Psalm 18:49

Let’s give God the glory for all He has done for us by giving Him our worship.

We will now be reading 1 Chronicles 10 – 29 for three weeks.

Blessings,

Tricia

Live a life of Faithful Obedience to God

Dearest Readers,

  There is great joy that comes when we walk in faithful obedience to God and His commands. God’s first and greatest commandment to us is to, “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” Deuteronomy 6:5 When we take this command seriously and follow it with the help of Jesus through the Holy Spirit, we are following all of God’s commands. When we love God this much, He becomes number one in our lives over anything or anyone else. Living our lives with God as number one will bring glory and honor to God in ways we can only imagine. When we honor God with our lives, God will bring honor to us through our relationships, our health, and our daily goings on. But, this is a benefit we can experience only if we stay close to God through Jesus Christ.

  King Josiah was a faithful and obedient king of Judah, who learned very early about God’s commands and instituted them during his reign. He did even more than his great-grandfather King Hezekiah in getting rid of the false idols and false gods that had plagued Israel and Judah. He destroyed all the high places where the Israelites burned incense. He also eliminated all the priests that were not from the line of the Levites. King Josiah completely demolished into dust anything that dishonored God in His kingdom. This then made it possible for the people of Judah to be lead to worship the one true God. For awhile there were no more deceptive objects of worship around to steal the hearts of the people away from God. King Josiah lived a life faithful to God in all he did. He loved God and followed Him no matter what. He trusted God as the Ultimate Authority and that authority was to be followed.

  Recently I have learned that God has been waiting patiently for me all my life. Finally, my heart and soul began to understand that He is the only one I can truly depend on and trust with my heart and soul. Only God through Jesus Christ can truly love me the way I was created to be loved. Once I understood this, I was better able to love Jesus and allow Him to come in a powerful way every moment of the day. He is everything I have ever needed and wanted. Now that I am experiencing Jesus’ true love for me, my love for others has been greatly blessed. When I have Jesus this close, I can know He is leading me through the good and bad days. I can depend on Him to show me the better way to handle all the ups and downs of life. This is walking in faithful obedience to God the way He desires us to; closely communicating with Jesus all day long.

  Isn’t this the way Jesus walked when He was on this earth? Just look at many of the examples during His ministry. He was in constant communication with His Father in Heaven. The obedience Jesus showed to God is our perfect example of how we should live each day in obedience to Him.

   There is always going to be circumstances in this life that can pull us away from God a little. As soon as we realize this, seek God’s presence to continue walking with Him again. This way of living brings glory and honor to God. If we don’t realize that there is a problem, and we ignore God and continue in the wrong direction, we are sinning against Him. If we don’t stop and turn back to Him we are left on my own, unprotected with limited guidance from God. This is when we stop hearing from Him, and we will tend to continue walking in the wrong direction. Other things lead us away from Him, just like the idols and false gods during King Josiah’s day, lead them away from God. The blessings received when we walk this way, are limited. Hopefully Christians will notice that a distance has come between them and God, repent, cry out to God, and seek to walk closely with Him again.

  When this happens to me, I remember who is in charge. It is a fearful thing to know that I have stepped away from God. God never leaves me, but I can forget Him. Because I have respect for God and love Him with all my heart, I do what He asks because I trust Him completely. Whether it is a book to read or not, something to do for someone else, or how to handle difficult people, I seek God’s guidance first. I am doing God’s will and I am delighted to do it. If you are walking closely with God, that relationship with Him should be all you truly desire. The rest will flow from that life of obedience to God.

“And this is love: that we walk in obedience to His commands. As you have heard from the beginning, His command is that you walk in love.” IIJohn1:6

“But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.” Psalm13:5

“Jesus replied, ‘If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make our home with him.’” John 14:23

There is only one sure thing is this world, that is the love of God. Do you know that love?

We will now be reading 1Chronicles 1-9 for one week.

Blessing,

Tricia

Receive God's Strength

Hello Dear Loved Ones in Christ,

  I am praying that you are filled with God’s peace today and everyday. The bad thing about peace is it can be fleeting. The only way to keep our peace each day is to understand that we are not strong, but weak. We are not in control, but God is. So if we want God’s peace in our lives, we must depend on God’s strength and not ours to take care of the huge obstacles and even the little ones that are in each of our lives. Then our lives will be free to serve and worship God.

  The nation of Israel has now been captured and exiled to Assyria. Twenty-six years later, the chief officer of the Assyrian army came to Judah to declare war. He declared that their god was not able to deliver them from the great nation of Assyria because Israel’s god hadn’t delivered them. When King Hezekiah heard about the threats, he didn’t go out and fight the Assyrian army; he went directly into the Temple of the Lord to seek His guidance and direction in this terrible situation. He sent his officials for the prophet Isaiah. “Isaiah said to them, Tell your master, this is what the Lord says; Do not be afraid of what you have heard – those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. Listen! I am going to put such a spirit in him that when he hears a certain report, he will return to his own country, and there I will have him cut down with the sword.” II Kings 19:6-7

  The Lord did all that He promised and Judah was spared - for a time. When we understand how weak we are, we can then seek God to provide His strength in the situation. He provides for His children in all that we need. We are unable to receive this strength from God. If we think we are strong enough to fight off our enemies and make the right decisions for our future then God will not provide us with His strength.

   Are you willing to first go to God and seek His deliverance for each of your difficult situations like King Hezekiah? Are you willing to be obedient to what He wants you to do in order to accomplish His purposes for your life? Loving and trusting God gives each of us the ability to work with Him to help correct the difficulties in our lives and in the lives of others. This is done in God’s strength, not our own. Won’t you trust God today? When we are weak, this is when He is able to become strong in us IF we ask Him. That is when much is accomplished for the Kingdom of God.

  My desire is to accomplish much in His strength, not my own. This is what God is teaching me right now; to seek His will in the things I write, and the things I say. When I have done these things in my own strength, I have ended up frustrated and left feeling all alone. But when I have relied on God each day for guidance and wisdom, I have watched Him move in the lives of people in remarkable ways. Jesus is so amazing when He works in my life. His is beautiful and wise and understands intricacies of life that are so far beyond my understanding. I love trusting Him everyday.

“But He said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

II Corinthians 12:9-10

“…Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised, who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Hebrews 11:32-34

“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10

  We will continue reading II Kings 15 – 25 for one more week.

Blessings,

Tricia