I want to introduce you to a blogger friend of mine whom I have shared with you before and who has offered her wonderful devotional “Trust Without Borders” which I believe has been for ‘such a time as this’ (at least in my world), Arabah Joy.
Arabah has just released her latest project for us “Grace Goals” and it is going to bring an excellent start to your new year!
If you would be interested in checking this out for yourself, you just need to click on the image above and discover what in the world Goals is all about.
Arabah is a woman of the word yet struggles just like the rest of us to walk in the Spirit day by day. I personally love her transparent style and I believe you will too.
Let’s join the journey together and be blessed by this new release from Arabah Joy!
I have the privilege of guest posting every once in a while. And tomorrow I will be sharing on the topic of Worship over at my friend Arabah Joy’s blog.
Please plan to join me and would love your input on this often controversial topic!
Worship…it is a very big topic with a lot of varying opinions about what, why, where and when we do this thing called worship…
(Thank you Frances Chan for making that very evident in Crazy Love.)
With that being said I want us to think about your most favorite person on earth. You know what I mean don’t you…the one you long to be with, can’t get enough time with and can’t wait until the next time! Well now let’s make that person our Lord. Let’s base this whole worship concept on who it is that we adore.
This is a fascinating definition of worship by apologist, Ravi Zacharias:
“is the submission of all of our nature to God,
it’s the quickening of conscience by His holiness,
nourishment of mind by His truth,
purifying of imagination by His beauty,
opening of the heart to His love,
submission of will to His purpose,
All this gathered up in adoration…is the greatest of human expressions.”
~Ravi Zacharias
Love it, an intellectual defining of worship as only Ravi can define! But we aren’t all there with the lofty understanding and sometimes need a down to earth picture of what this worship is all about.
As you can see from Ravi’s point, this is a something you do or we can say that the out-flow from us makes this worship a verb form of the word. Or I like to think of it as a ‘response’ to the Father’s love. The more I get to know Him, the more I want to worship Him in everything I do.
But what about the musical aspect of worship? Oh I love my worship music! After all I host a radio program for two hours every weekday filled with music that points to the King! That brings Him glory and expresses my love for Him.
Now here’s the thing, music is something I can do a lot of the time because I sing all day long. I wake up with a song in my heart. But I want to say that how I live my life for Him, every moment of every day is really my expression of love for Father!
Pouring my heart out before Him as I express my hearts desire to know Him more!
Singing along and worshiping with this great group of ‘worshipers’ is one amazing event! I love the element of deep focus on the Lord that musical worship brings into my heart. Oh how I look forward to a day when this is what we will be doing forever, gathered with the Saints in worship before the throne of God!!!
I don’t know about you but, I think we need to practice the worship thing while we are on this side of eternity! So let me ask you…
When do you know you are worshiping God? Does it feel like a result to doing something, like warm fuzzies?
How can you practice, this in your everyday living? Careful, I’m not talking about a works based thing here.
Remember, worship is a state of the heart. Go back and read Ravi’s description before you move on.
The result of a changed heart from experiencing His presence when we draw near to Him with an adoring heart creates an out-flowing love for others. It brings us to that place called ministry, called caring without thinking about it. Worship is my time with God in whatever form that takes in our individual lives. And on this side of the journey, I am always thrilled when I can pull a bit closer knowing it is transforming me to be more like Jesus.
And another aspect you may want to investigate is that Worship is a Tool! And in the Bible there were the worshipers who went before the soldiers to accomplish a certain task before the battle would take place. Quite fascinating especially how we can apply that to our services today that open and close with worship.
Will you let the Lord pull you a bit closer by opening your heart to His? He wants to reveal more of who He is to you and as you draw near He does just This is the stuff that changes us from the inside out, friend!
“But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord God my refuge, That I may tell of all Your works.” Psalm 73:28 (NASB)
Kimberly serves in ministry at Psalm FM Radio in the “Icebox of the Nation” where she hosts a daily music program,”Vertical Connection”
Living northward with her husband, mom, dog and cat is a must while indulging her grandsons with lots of woods to venture in when they visit.
Kimberly loves to encourage and challenge through her words and whether speaking or writing her love for Jesus is evident.
“For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much;” Luke 7:47a
Been a while since miss Elsa got herself on a freedom jog. She really had been doing wonderfully. Oh yes, we use the ‘shock’ collar because she needs those reminders…oh that’s right, I need to come, return, stop…so I will hear “good girl!”
Winter time makes it much easier to run back to the house, after all it’s cold out there! But spring has sprung and the wildlife is definitely showing more activity around our woods. Birds tweeting, rabbits hopping about, squirrels zipping around and boy a little girl naturally gets mighty curious about all these things that have started moving about.
We were out for a walk one morning and as we were finishing up and headed toward the house, (but back in the woods) I dropped her leash and asked her to come with me (redirecting our path.) Don’t you know I forgot the shock collar remote, but thought surely she would follow. I turned around and I couldn’t see her anywhere. Why this morning, when my husband was out of town? And now I would be late for work if she doesn’t show up quickly.
Fear began to arise, she always heads toward the road, a busy highway with traffic zooming 50-60 mph with people on their way to work and school. I really began to feel dread. My mind began to show me pictures of her mangled little body on the road and the tears began to flow. This has been my fear since the first couple times she ran from us and refused to come when called, ending up across the road in the neighbor’s yard. The the other time she was up the hill lickity split on a snow slick road. Man that girl can run.
I had so hoped that being almost seven she would quit her disobedient ways, ha! But isn’t that just like we can sometimes be? Oh, we have learned it isn’t healthy, wise, or right to do a thing and yet we can turn around and do it anyway…oh the sinful ways of man. As Paul tells us in Romans 7:15-20
I can get so confused with all this doing and not doing and falling backward into where I do not want to be!
Do you ever struggle with doing what you know you shouldn’t?
How about knowing what you should be doing but you don’t do it?
God has me on this trusting Him thing. And it started out being one of the hardest things to for me to engage in with Father. We say we trust God all the time right? We want to believe that He has us covered and that we are held in His hand. For me, I first had to believe in His sovereignty. That was a several year journey just knowing that God does what He wants and He orchestrates and allows it all, period. I had to accept that even the tough stuff was part of His plan to grow me more like Him! This was a shift I had to make to go forward in my walk with the Lord!
Then God introduced me to a little book, “Trust Without Borders” and a blogger, Arabah Joy, who helped me to begin that process of nailing the coffin on my fears. This became an amazing God journey for such a time as this! From God moving in the heart of my prodigal son to yup, even a stubborn little Schnauzer!
So as my stomach began to get a bit queasy and the time was ticking away to now 45 minutes and only God knew where she was, I heard that still small voice…”You are trusting me with you prodigal son aren’t you? Will you trust me with your dog?” Smack me right upside the head He did as He whispered those words to my heart. So I asked Him to forgive me and agreed with Him in trusting He would return her unharmed.
As hard as it was I headed back to the house and prayed for her to come home and then thanked Father for speaking to my heart in my hour of stress. Philippians 4:6,7 is definitely my mantra (which I seemed to forget in my panic!) so I continued with the familiar “Be anxious for nothing…” as I returned to the house to get ready for work.
As I was prepping for work I just kept saying Lord, I do trust you and I believe you have this all under control! Pretty soon I heard my mom (who lives with us) enter talking to someone. I went to see here usher in the panting Elsa! I of course was flooded with relief, scolded her and promptly took her down to her crate where she stayed secluded and alone till I came home for lunch.
You know, I have to admit that this trust thing can really get difficult, but I know that it is the right attitude I must have to proceed. Think about your most favorite true friend, could be husband, friend, parent, you know the person who you admire and look up to the most. Were you to look at that person and say “I don’t trust you” and then proceeded to behave as though you didn’t, how on earth would they feel and how would that affect your relationship? I think you are getting it!
How hurt is our God…the one who loves us beyond imagination only wanting His very best for us…when we say mostly by our actions that we don’t trust Him?
Well, as I shift my thinking about what it really means to trust the Lord, He has taken the liberty to test me and I am now okay with this. After all this is the God I promote. I let others know I trust Him and desire to obey Him and by so doing believe that He has my held in His hands and that only His best will come forth from each circumstance He takes me through. I will be able to walk into any situation and know that as I lean hard into all I know about Him, He will see me through the cancer, divorce, the financial collapse or loss of a loved one. I can trust my Abba Father!
I am convinced that our stories are what let others know about our great God! After all, that’s the hook that got me. Testimonies on the 700 Club so long ago that showed help for my messy life! Thanks Arabah Joy for being able to share on Truth & Grace with a group of godly blogger girls!
Worship…it is a very big topic with a lot of varying opinions about what, why, where and when we do this thing called worship!
