I Get Distracted When I Worship! What Do I Do?

Read: Matthew 15:7-9 and Amos 5:21-24

Reflect: If we do not worship God in spirit and truth then we worship God in vain and God hates vain worship. Have you ever “gone through the motions” of worship?

Request: Lord, keep me from worshipping You in a wrong way.

Have you ever during worship had your mouth move and say the words from the song but you are thinking about something totally different? You may be thinking about how hungry you are and what sounds good to eat or maybe you were reliving a conversation from earlier. (more…)

All Consuming Fire!

Read: Psalm 45:1

Reflect: True worship comes from the heart. Have you ever felt so compelled to worship that you couldn’t keep yourself from worshipping God?

Request: Jesus, make my hearts desire to worship you with all that I am!

I am not much of a sports watcher but I have been to a few professional games for baseball and basketball. Even though I am not a die hard fan, I find myself getting excited about the game. I scream when the team scores a run or makes the basket. I get frustrated over the bad calls or bad playing. It is funny because I don’t know what comes over me when I am there. Maybe it is the energy from the crowd or the fact that seeing a live game is better than watching it on T.V. Either way I can’t help it. (more…)

Keep the Praise Going!

Read: Psalm 34:1

Reflect: What does it mean to “praise” God? What are some ways that you can do that?

Request (Prayer): Father, teach me how to praise You the way that You want to be praised.

Psalm 34:1 says, “I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth.” If we are to continually praise God through our mouth, does that mean that I have to sing worship songs all day?! No, not necessarily. Although that isn’t a bad thing to do, what does the Psalmist mean by saying that the praise to God should always be in our mouth?

I think what he’s trying to say is that this “praise” to God is something that we should always be doing, whether it be the way we speak, the actions we take or the things we think, it should continually be a life of praise to God.

Whatever we do, whether we eat or drink or whatever we do, we should do all of it to the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31) Whatever it is we do, we are to do to the glory of God, and if we are to have the praise of God continually in our mouth, then shouldn’t our praise and worship to God be glorifying to Him?
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Real Worship to a Real God

Read: John 4:23-24

Reflect: What does it mean to worship God in spirit and in truth? How can you be a true worshiper of God?

Request (Prayer): Lord, help me to be a true worshiper of You.

We hear the phrase, “worship God in spirit and in truth,” all the time. But what exactly does that mean? There are 2 ways that we are told to worship, and one way that both of those things can be accomplished.

We all worship something, and more often than not, we worship the wrong thing! We can easily worship our friends, status amongst our peers (popularity), money, success and many other things. But we, as Christians, have been called to worship God and God alone.

When we worship God, and nothing else, we are worshipping in spirit and in truth because we are acknowledging that God is the only one worthy of such praise!

Let’s put this into perspective…

Jesus gives us a clear picture of how worship is to be conducted, and how our time should be spent. In Matthew 6, Jesus tells us that we cannot serve 2 master for we will serve one or the other. And the problem with a lot of us is that we want to worship two things at the same time, but that can’t happen because we will give more attention to one over the other.

You cannot worship God AND money. You cannot worship God AND friends. You either serve God or money. Which will you choose?
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Smash Those Idols!

Read: Psalm 96:4-5

Reflect: Do idols get in the way of worshipping God? Are there any idols in your life that are keeping you from truly worshiping Him?

Request: God, You are the one true God, please help me to not put any other gods before you.

It is true to say everyone worships something. Wherever our attention and focus is that will show what we worship. In this psalm we read about idols that people would make and worship. These were stone or wood things that they would carve with their hands and then give it attention that only the TRUE God deserves.  Today we may not have wood or stone things that people carve and are bowing down before it but there are other things in life that take our attention.

What takes your time and thoughts and attention today? We live in a culture of distractions and I believe these little distractions can be idols in our lives. It could be just the music you have to listen to or the television show that you must watch. We may not bow down before our computers but even technology can be an idol if we are not careful. A test I like to do is to see how I do without that thing for some time.  If I get weird or freaked out because I do not have this thing in my life I realize that it probably was an idol in my life.  As it says in verse 5, “For all the gods of the people are worthless idols, ” technology and stuff can be helpful but it does not save us.

God deserves our time and focus. God is worthy of the praises of our lips. Be careful of the things of this world. As James says in 4:4, “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God.” Our worship only belongs to God. Watch out for those little distractions to not control your worship!

Born Again Worship

Read: John 3:3-7, Ephesians 2:8 & 2 Corinthians 5:17

Reflect: The only way to truly understand worship and to truly worship is if you are born again by putting your faith in Jesus. Have you put your faith in Jesus?

Request (Prayer): Ask Jesus to make you born again and to make you a new creation.

True worship comes by putting your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Worship is something that every person in the world practices, but true worship can only come from the believer of Jesus Christ.

A lot of people don’t actually realize this, but there are other things in the world that people can worship other than God. They worship there own little gods, and put those in place of the one true God. Who or What do YOU worship?

If you are a believer of Jesus Christ, the Bible says that you are a new creation, the old things have passed away and the new things have come. You are no longer bound in chains by sin, but you have been freed by Christ and now have a relationship with Him. How cool is that? God, sent His one and only Son, into the world to die for us so that we didn’t have to. Because of that fact alone, we should worship and praise God for sending His Son to die in our place. That alone should be the reason we worship.
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