Worship is an act of obedient faith, even when circumstances offer opportunities to fear. It is also a life of extravagant love for God. Worship, love and obedience are tied together.
As you seek first the kingdom of God and obey the Spirit of God, He calls you on to a deeper knowledge of Himself. The first commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind (John 14:21-24; Matt. 22:37).
David prayed, “Give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name” (Ps. 86:11). Make this your prayer as you serve God passionately with your life. This will cause the blessings of heaven to pour out upon your world.
Love Expresses Worship
To be a worshipper is to fall in love with God, the Author of love, and accept the love He has for you. God gave you His Word as a living love letter that contains everything you will ever need to get through this life and beyond.
His love is at work within us, filling us to the measure with the fullness of God. If we could understand even an inkling of this love Christ has for us, our hearts would be full of extravagant worship for the One who loves us so much.
The many songs I’ve written to express my love for God don’t come close to what I’m trying to say. But I can demonstrate my love for God by living out my part of the Great Commission and bringing the Author of love to our love-starved planet. I can determine to love others as He loves.
When I was saved I cried and cried in the presence of God. Tears of gratitude flowed easily as He restored my heart and filled me with His unconditional love. Now all I want to do is sing of His awesome, healing love forever.
One of the biggest challenges in life for the mind and soul is simply to accept God’s love for you as a gift. It is the greatest absolute in your life.
John 3:16 states, “For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He gave His only begotten Son” (AMP). Because His love is in our hearts, we have the power to love others (1 John 4:7-13).
Loving others is an act of worship toward the Author of love. But until you know through personal experience who God is, you will never know the depth of His love for you. And until you know that you are loved, you can never love others as you love yourself (Matt. 22:39).
Know Your Worth to God
Many people, including myself, have battled with insecurity, inadequacy and intimidation. It is difficult to carry the weight of inferiority into our time of worship.
Worship is a time to focus on who God is. It is a time to enjoy the awesome authority and anointing that He puts on His people who come into His presence with praise. Sometimes the enemy works very hard to keep us from worshiping freely, but sometimes we simply lack discipline in our thought life.
If we read the Word and keep God’s truth in our hearts, we will focus our attention on His greatness and on the value that He places on us. God sees all our inadequacies through the blood of Christ. Because of Jesus, our heavenly Father sees us just as He sees His Son–beautiful and perfect.
God looks at us just as a loving parent looks at his children. My three daughters could be naughty, but I look at them, and I think they are perfect.
Unapologetically, I think they are magnificent. That is the heart of a parent. How much more does God look at us and say, “Oh, they are My precious, beloved children.”
When you understand who you are in Christ, a rest enters your soul that cannot coexist with striving and struggling. Just as darkness cannot coexist with light, striving for approval does not coexist with confidence in His grace. And who you are in Christ matters more than what you do.
I was the girl “least likely to succeed.” But my future has never relied on anyone else’s opinion of my ability.
I’m a testimony of God’s grace. The very least we can do is give God our lives and let Him show us the great things He can do through our yielded hearts and hands.
We have been created with the divine purpose of having Jesus as the center of our existence. We were created to worship Him in all we do (Heb. 10:19-23).
Through worship we put Christ as the chief cornerstone of our lives, and the power we have access to in His presence is real. He longs for us to draw closer to Him.
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