Send to God

When we look at sending praise to God, it most focus around our worship.  We are created for this very purpose.  When we worship we have the opportunity to encounter a God that is worthy of our praise.  When we worship, we send our emotions and our love towards heaven.  If we ever expect to receive all that God has for us we must send our up our praise and have an open line of communication with him.

 So in order for us to worship the creator we must understand what true worship is.  It is not an act that we may do on a Sunday morning after the fast songs, it is not saying I love you Lord on Sunday mornings and then living every day in the opposite, it is however a lifestyle.  True worship is an outward expression of the heart.  Not only does every person have a desire to worship, but every person does worship something.  God created us to be people of worship, and until he becomes the true focus of our worship, our lives will remain meaningless.  As we “delight ourselves in the Lord” we will discover the desires of our heart (Psalms 34: 4). 

In Luke 7:36-50, we look closely at a woman who had the send part of her life down pat.  She had a burning desire to send all that she had to him in hopes that he would then give her something far greater than she had ever received and in the end connecting with Him deeper than she ever had before.  Our story begins as the woman finds out that Jesus is at a house and she drops everything and goes to this house.  In verse 38 we see her begin the sending part towards him, it says that she stood at His feet and then we find her kneeling at His feet.  She took steps to get to were she ended up: 

She heard about him being there. 

She dropped what she was doing and went to the house.

She stood besides Him.

She knelt at His feet.

We see her progression beginning at her burning desire to worship.  She had a true love for Jesus.  True love for something or someone will cause hindrances or pride to fade away.  She didn’t care what others thought of her. 

As the story moves on we see her continue in this act of worship as brings something of great importance with her to purposely use as a sacrifice of love towards Jesus. She knew that true worship would always require great sacrifice.  She knew that with her true worship that true rewards would come, and she received all that they were.  She received forgiveness, salvation, and peace (Luke 7:49-50). 

Today we have to prepare our hearts to give worship to God:  From this story we have the outline to how we should prepare our hearts to send up towards God. 

1. We must separate ourselves from others so that we can find out were Jesus will be. 
2. When we find out where he is we must put all things aside and get to that point. 
3. We must humble ourselves before the lord in all that we do. 
4. In our prayers and worship we must be willing to sacrifice some things in our life that are very important to us. 
5. After the sacrifice we must thank Him for the forgiveness, the peace, and the salvation.

God help me to always give you all that is within me.  Let me get to the point that nothing else matters, and lay everything else aside to get into your presence.  Lord help me to listen for your voice, and to know Your will.  

 

 

Fire

“I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot: I wish you were one or the other. So then because you are lukewarm, that you are neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth.” (Revelation 3:15-16) 

Does this verse challenge you? Bother you? Identify you? Scare you? Do you remember a time where you had finally rid yourself of whatever killed your fellowship with God? Where you had strength over temptation, joy to spread around, and love for prayer? You felt like you had finally discovered what being a Child of God was all about, and your peace was unmatched. Somehow, sin, disbelief or complacency nursed their way back in and interrupted your fellowship with the Lord. Now all your joy is forgotten, and when you look at scriptures that mention God’s peace and happiness, you wonder if you can ever get back to that place, or even remember what it was like. Then in today’s verse, you see what Jesus had to say about lukewarm life, and you feel even worse! 

So what is the solution? Jesus said he would have us either hot or cold, and we certainly don’t want to become cold, so there is only one choice. We must get to a point where we are spiritually hotter than ever. But how? When Jesus mentioned spewing us out of his mouth because we are lukewarm, we get the image of a beverage that is either served hot or cold. What beverage do you know of heats itself? No drink - coffee, tea, hot chocolate, anything - becomes hot without flame or heat from an external source acting on it to make its temperature rise. 

It’s the same with spiritually. While many people seek to fit the term on fire, the truth is we cannot heat ourselves. Even if we devote hours to reading scripture, promise not to sin, and fight with all our heart to avoid tempting situations. We may get discipline from it, but we still won’t have that spiritual hotness that we and God both desire. We cannot heat ourselves! But we CAN make the decision to change, restore our fellowship by confessing and repenting of sins, and ASK God to put the flame to us. As soon as we acknowledge that it’s not about what we do, but about what God does for us, then we will experience grace. True zeal for God is caused when he affects our lives, when he stokes the fire, and when he gives us the grace to be all he desires. 

Then with grateful and joyous hearts, we have no choice but to be zealous for Him. And it is done this way so He gets all the glory. So, cold or hot? How about on fire!? It can be yours if you simply repent, believe, and ask. And keep asking.  He rewards faith, and faith doesn’t give up. Your Fathers good pleasure is to give you the Kingdom. He wants to be pleased by you just as much as you want to be pleasing to him. So pray, and wait for His answer. The word promises that if we ask, and believe, we have what we asked for. And when God answers, when he stokes your faith up again - you will be able to identify yourself without hesitation as one of the few and happy who are on fire for God.  

God, in the many decisions that we face daily in our lives, let us always trust you in all that we do.  Let me always look forward to the future and who holds it!  I thank you lord for giving us hope and I cannot wait to see what You have in store for us!  Help me to always be on fire for You!