Worshiping God

All day, every day, we need to be reaching out to God and seeking his instruction.

“Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”  Colossians 3:16 (NASB)

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Let this be a time of worship to God.  Pray each prayer and add your own personal message to God.  Read each scripture as though reading it for the first time – listen carefully for the voice of God.  Listen to each song paying close attention to the lyrics provided.  These songs were carefully chosen.  Even if the music is not your favorite style of music, know that the musicians performing are sincerely making music to the Lord.  Try to feel the passion in their words and their musical expression.  Give thought to the message presented and confirm the truth therein by opening your Bible and taking some time to do your own personal study.  May you be greatly blessed.

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Let’s Pray Together

Heavenly Father, we stand in your presence in awe of your awesome power and love.  We seek that which is your will in our lives and look forward to the return of your Son Jesus Christ.  Please Father, wrap your arms around each of us and provide for us all of our needs.  Forgive us Father, for all of our mistakes and failures in our pursuit of righteousness.  Develop in us the ability to also forgive those who disrupt our lives.  Open our eyes Father, to the enemy who is in pursuit of our souls.  Let us see clearly the evil trying to control our lives so that we can avoid destruction.  We offer this prayer in the Holy name of Jesus.  Amen.

Worshiping God

Are you a follower of Jesus Christ?  If you are, worshiping God is part of who you are.  It is likely something you do all day long.  The mere fact that our heart is beating and our lungs are expanding and contracting is the starting point of our worship each day. Our God is the Creator of all things.  The sun, moon, and stars were set in place by God’s design.  Our eternal salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ was a gift from our God.

“Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable.”  Psalm 145:3 (NASB)

Praise God for giving you this moment right now.  Praise God for giving you life.  Praise God for His awesome love.

Allow this song to speak to your heart:

Great Are You Lord – All Sons & Daughters

You give life, You are love

You bring light to the darkness

You give hope, You restore

Every heart that is broken

Great are You, Lord

It’s Your breath in our lungs

So we pour out our praise

We pour out our praise

It’s Your breath in our lungs

So we pour out our praise to You only

You give life, You are love

You bring light to the darkness

You give hope, You restore

Every heart that is broken

Great are You, Lord

It’s Your breath in our lungs

So we pour out our praise

We pour out our praise

It’s Your breath in our lungs

So we pour out our praise to You only

It’s Your breath in our lungs

So we pour out our praise

We pour out our praise

It’s Your breath in our lungs

So we pour out our praise to You only

And all the earth will shout Your praise

Our hearts will cry, these bones will sing

Great are You, Lord

And all the earth will shout Your praise

Our hearts will cry, these bones will sing

Great are You, Lord

And all the earth will shout Your praise

Our hearts will cry, these bones will sing

Great are You, Lord

It’s Your breath in our lungs

So we pour out our praise

We pour out our praise

It’s Your breath in our lungs

So we pour out our praise

To You only

It’s Your breath in our lungs

So we pour out our praise

We pour out our praise

It’s Your breath in our lungs

So we pour out our praise

To You only

It’s your breath in our lungs, so we pour out our praise.

This is an undeniable truth, but can we admit that it’s not always easy?  Sometimes life takes a toll on us that pulls us away from God.  Make no mistake about it, that’s by design – and I’m not talking about God’s design – we have an enemy who is working overtime to push us away from the light and into the darkness.

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”  Ephesians 6:12 (NASB)

That is why the time we are spending right now with God is so important.  When we feel those dark forces pulling us in the wrong direction, our first instinct should be to seek God.  But that’s not always the case, is it?  When we encounter periods of stress in our lives, sometimes the first thing we do to clear time in our schedule is eliminate time spent with God – in worship, in study of the Word, in prayer.  Often, when life is crashing in on us we chase other solutions rather than turning to God.  Let’s be honest – will prayer pay the bills?  Will a deeper study of the book of Romans fix the broken water pump in your car?  What about more time spent in worship?  Will that solve a failing relationship with a spouse?

Did you ever have one of those moments where you were struggling for a long time on a certain task, and then someone with much more experience came along and showed you how to do that task more efficiently, and suddenly everything made sense and that task was no longer an issue?  Riding a bicycle might be one example we can all relate to.  Without a little help, riding a bicycle seems like an almost impossible task; but with a good mentor, you are quickly riding on your own with the wind in your hair.

The absolute best mentor for whatever struggles you are going through in your life is God.  Prayer, Bible study, and more time worshiping will not pay your bills, but those tools will develop in you the ability to cope with and move beyond your struggles.  More importantly, those tools will develop in you the ability to avoid the temptations of the dark forces that are out to destroy your life.  The enemy is real and if you’re not wearing the full armor of God, you will be vulnerable and exposed to those evil schemes.

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.”  Ephesians 6:10-11 (NASB)

The full armor of God includes truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, and the Word of God.  When you move away from those things or eliminate them all together from your life, you increase the power of the enemy and only make your struggles worse.  All day, every day, we need to be reaching out to God and seeking his instruction.

Allow this song to speak to your heart:

Reach – Doe Jones

Teach, my heart to reach, Father

Teach my heart to reach

‘Cause when my soul is weary

Teach my heart to reach

And teach my heart to seek, Father-Father (Father)

Teach my heart to seek

And when my soul (When my soul)

Is weary

‘Cause sometimes we get weary (Weary)

‘Cause sometimes we get tired (Weary)

Mmm, would You teach my heart to reach?

And I’m feeling stretched, but I can tell

That my love has grown

Deeper and realer

Yes, my love has grown

I’m feelin’ stretched, but I can tell

That my love has grown

Deeper, authentic

Yes, my love has grown

I’m feelin’ stretched, but as I press into You, Jesus

Yes, my love has grown

Yeah, deeper and realer

Yes, my love has gro-o-own (Yes, my love has grown)

It’s grown

And my love will grow

And grow, and gro-o-o-ow

As You teach my heart to reach

Father, teach my heart to seek You

‘Cause when my soul is weary

It’s not always to seek You

Sometimes we get (Weary)

It’s not always to wait on You, Jesus

Sometimes we get (Weary)

And if we press through, we’ll get through when we are (Weary)

Sometimes we get weary, we get weary

But would You teach my heart to reach?

Reasons to Worship God

The Bible repeatedly instructs us to worship God.  This instruction is so often repeated we should arrive at the understanding that worshiping God is as important to our survival as drinking water.  In fact, every time we take a drink of water we should be praising God for supplying us with that essential need.

“Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.  Praise the Lord!” Psalm 150:6 (NASB)

As followers of Jesus Christ, our salvation provides us access to God.  That access is set into motion through praise.  Our time spent in worship is the key that opens the gate to God’s heart.

“Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise.  Give thanks to Him, bless His name.”  Psalm 100:4 (NASB)

Our worship of God begins with his awesome creation that includes every beautiful thing we see in nature and the amazing way in which it all works together in harmony.

“Praise Him for His mighty deeds; praise Him according to His excellent greatness.”  Psalm 150:2 (NASB)

We worship God because he never gives up on us.  Even when we turn our backs on God he patiently waits with open loving arms for our return.

“Therefore the Lord longs to be gracious to you, and therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you.”  Isaiah 30:18 (NASB)

We worship God for providing us with the Bible that directs us to Jesus Christ and our salvation.  Everyone who has read the Bible from cover-to-cover comes away amazed by the extraordinary complexity of its construction.  Sixty-six books composed by 40 different writers over 1,500 years; yet it all fits perfectly together because the true author was God.

“These have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.”  John 20:31 (NASB)

There are so many reasons for us to praise and worship God we could not possibly list them all here.  A great exercise for all of us would be to spend one day writing down every moment that we recognize God’s contribution to our lives.  We are nothing without God.  We are everything when we are safely in his arms.  Praise the Lord!

“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name.  Bless the Lord, O my soul.”  Psalm 103:1-2 (NASB)

Allow this song to speak to your heart:

10,000 Reasons – Matt Redman

Bless the Lord, Oh my soul

Oh my soul, worship his holy name

Sing like never before, Oh my soul

I’ll worship your holy name

The sun comes up, it’s a new day dawning

It’s time to sing your song again

Whatever may pass and whatever lies before me

Let me be singing when the evening comes

Bless the Lord, Oh my soul

Oh my soul, worship his holy name

Sing like never before, Oh my soul

I’ll worship your holy name

You’re rich in love and you’re slow to anger

Your name is great and your heart is kind

For all your goodness, I will keep on singing

Ten thousand reasons for my heart to find

Bless the Lord, Oh my soul

Oh my soul, worship his holy name

Sing like never before, Oh my soul

I’ll worship your holy name

And on that day when my strength is failing

The end draws near and my time has come

Still my soul will sing your praise unending

Ten thousand years and then forevermore

Forevermore

Bless the Lord, Oh my soul

Oh my soul, worship his holy name

Sing like never before, Oh my soul

I’ll worship your holy name

Bless the lord, oh my soul

Oh my soul, worship his holy name

Sing like never before, oh my soul

I’ll worship your holy name

Yes I’ll worship your holy name

Lord I’ll worship your holy name

Thank you for spending this time worshiping God.

His door is now open to you.  You are in God’s presence.  Don’t leave without Him.  Keep Him with you throughout your day.

Go in peace.

All scripture references are linked to Bible Gateway so that you can read each verse in context.  Bible Gateway allows you to change the verse to your favorite translation and compare it side-by-side with multiple translations.  In addition, you can select to hear an audio version of any verse by clicking on the speaker icon.  Keep the Bible Gateway App on your phone so that you can visit the Word of God at any time during your day.

Thinking About God