Tag: True Worship

Idols?

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What or who are they in your life?

A lot of us within the body of Christ have the false belief that because we don’t look up to graven images and we don’t physically bow down to shrines or symbolic statues or figures, that we aren’t idolators…

But we’re so wrong.

Take a look at the list below and let’s rank these things – and I want you to be very very honest with yourself.

In your life, where is God’s true position amongst the following things/people?
(And please let this be a genuine assessment of where He really comes in the mix of things and not where you’d like Him to be in an ideal world…)

  • Job/Career
  • Business
  • Spouse
  • Partner (boyfriend or girlfriend)
  • Child/children
  • Education
  • Home care and chores
  • Socialising
  • Food
  • Bills
  • Fitness
  • Any other activities and people we fill our days with

Where is He?
Lower than you expected?

You see, every single thing/person that you allow to take a greater weight, value or importance in your life than your pursuit of God and His will and His word –
is an I D O L.

And please bear in mind that this is not always done consciously…
You mean no harm or insult to God when you do it, but to name a few:

  • You look at your phone and check that social media news feed ten times more than you even think of meditating and conversing with Your Maker.
  • Your tithe and offering is often short because you had other things to pay for.
  • You just want to quickly do the washing up first, then you’ll pray.
  • You just need to cook for the family first, then you’ll read the Word.

Very easily, He’s fallen a couple or even a good number of places in the ranking…
But we didn’t mean for it to be so.

Now don’t get me wrong, a very select number of things in our lives are actually ‘that important’ and in fact God does not undermine their importance either. However the problem of idolatry arises when we prioritise these things above God, and often it becomes a repeated habit.

What many of us have done is just about ‘fit God in’ and made Him work around everything else that we have going on, rather than the other way round. This is not only in terms of spending time with God, but it is also applicable in terms of what we do with our finances and other resources in which He has given us clear instructions about how to use them to serve Him.
We have put things so far above God and made Him last on our list. We rush and are eager and take so much more pleasure in engaging ourselves with all the things of the world; but we forget that we ought to be working out our salvation with fear and trembling. (Philippians 2:12-13).

Sound like idol worshipping yet?

One of our favourite luxuries being children of God, I’m sure is G R A C E.
But that very gift that God has given us freely, is what many of us are abusing and it’s the reason why we’ve become so lax in our service and worship to the Creator of Heaven and Earth.

We seem to have forgotten that God comes first!
(Matthew 6:33, Matthew 22:37-40).

How about we flip it, and start to do it right.

-Prayer and worship should be intentionally scheduled into your daily routine, not just as and when you remember.

-Your tithes should be the first thing intentionally set aside from your 100% on payday, not just scraped together after you’ve dealt with everything else.
I understand this can be sensitive for some who are struggling, but I really encourage you to activate your faith in doing this, and then watch for the fruits of your obedience – the Lord Himself says ‘Test Me…’ – God will never fail you! (Please see related scripture here: Proverbs 3:9-10, Leviticus 27:30-34, Malachi 3:8-12).

-Church services – to fellowship with others, and render a service before God, take precedence over work and social events etc.

Again, that’s only to name a few – we all know the things we need to adjust in our lives, so let’s not neglect what needs to be changed.

I must say though – I get it… A lot of the time when we’ve put God on the back burner, our main justification is because it’s in order to do stuff ‘we HAVE to do’ – it’s when we’re tending our flock – so God understands, right?
I’ll put my hands up and say I’ve done it too – mainly with my education – surely God doesn’t want me to fail, right?

But let us remember the word in Ecclesiastes 3:1 that says there is a time for everything, thus we must create order, structure and discipline in our lives and ensure that drawing nearer to God is at the top of our plans.
Retrain your mind to know and understand that God who gave you all these things will surely help you take great care of it all, but not at the expense of your worship and relationship with Him.

Father,
Today we call our hearts back to You in Jesus’ Name. We ask for Your perfect forgiveness to cleanse us and renew us for every single way we’ve made things and people in our lives god above You.
We ask that You enable us to consecrate our lives back unto You and revere and honour You as we ought to.
We don’t want Your wrath O God, we want Your smile and we want to make You happy, therefore help us get our worship and service right in order to please You. And help our hearts to truly chase and long after You in Jesus’ Mighty Name

Restore us unto You Father, let us be close to You,
in Jesus’ Mighty Name we pray.
Amen.

Keep the Faith, Don’t Stop Believing.

 

Beauty in your Simplicity…

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Do you realise that sometimes your most simple and plain stateis more than enough? 

Now this is a weird one, because we see that actually sometimes in the bible the reference made to being simple/simple-minded is actually in a light which displays a lack of wisdom and an inability to push forward (Proverbs 1:22, Proverbs 14:15).

However at other times we see that simplicity in worship, and in serving Christ, is deemed ‘just right’. (2 Corinthians 11:3, 2 Corinthians 1:12)
And that’s where I’m going today.

Quick scenario to hopefully help paint the picture:
Have you ever dressed up in what you thought was the absolute best outfit ever, perfect make-up/shape up, gone out, and then not really gotten as many compliments/as much attention as you had anticipated (not necessarily because you desired it, but because you believed your appearance commanded it)?
But then on the most lowly and meek of days, when you didn’t try so hard, but still looked good, this very day was when everyone had something positive to say?!

I assure you that this does not happen just by chance.

God is such an intentional and amazing God, that He uses such scenarios to show us something deeper.
And with this example, God is showing us something in terms of our walk with Christ – that there is greater beauty when you strip all the layers away, and just come as you are, in your truest and purest form…
With a child-like innocence (Luke 18:15-17, Matthew 19:14), and a heart that just yearns for more of Jesus.

You see, many times we get so tied up in the puzzle that society has created Christianity to be.
We get lost in the complexity that man and woman have themselves constructed as the apparent ‘life of a believer’.
And we forget the beauty of the basics.
Unfortunately, once this is gone, we find ourselves losing out on the results of an authentic worship.
We find ourselves playing the role of someone who loves God, rather than truly living it.
Thus, we become less fulfilled and actually find that we’re struggling to truly Encounter God as we have before.

But remember, God just wants us to worship in spirit and in truth though… (John 4:24)

He didn’t ask for an extravaganza or a parade or all the dramatics that sometimes maybe look like they’re making something happen in the spiritual realm.

He just wants the real you.

He wants a worshipper, a child of His own, who will live for Him and serve Him, in spirit – not led by the flesh or things of this earth, and in truth – not a facade and not a show for others to see, but genuine, real, sincere worship.

You see what happens is, on the days when we don’t try so hard and don’t try to do too much, what people see is beyond the physical.
In fact God takes that simplicity and purity, and places His glory upon it, and makes it way bigger than we could ever comprehend.
What am I saying here?
I’m saying that when we do less, we give room and allow for the glory of God in us to shine through MORE – and you better believe this glory is incomparable to anything we think we could ever adorn ourselves with.

This applies not only to our walk with Christ, but with many other areas of our lives too – when we allow God to Shine through – the outcome is so much more glorious than what our mere mortal ability could have ever accomplished.

So with this, let’s pray…

Father Lord,
Let our lives always give You all the glory.
Help us to come back to the heart of worship, and bring ourselves to You in our realest, purest form.
Help us to strip away every addition we’ve put into our relationship with You, based on what humans have said it should be, and rather let us just come with a humble and pure heart, ready to receive every part of You.
Enable us to never lose sight of the cross and never get so caught up in what society says Christianity should look like, but rather empower us to have confidence in our simple, true and moving worship to You, with every single aspect of our lives.
In Jesus’ name. 
Amen 

Keep the Faith, Don’t Stop Believing
God Bless you.