Everyday Worship – Part 3

We are continuing to break down the Word our Lord gave us in mid-October, which is that “everyday worship is very strategic for life.”

Priority

A key element Holy Spirit highlighted to me is priority, especially concerning God and people. We simply cannot make it without Him and them.

God helps us reconcile our work life realities with Him by inviting us to balance our divine assignments with His divine Presence. Too often, we can get caught up in deadline pressures to the point of hyper-focus on the task, even if it’s for God. In an effort to get the job done, we can ignore intervals to break away to be alone with Him as our Provider and Finisher. We can even devalue His invitations to experience His Presence that is our answer to our pleas for help. We can dismiss the importance of being refreshed.

Praise breaks are a normal and required part of a work-as-worship lifestyle. Knowing His timing of when to break away with Him is part of the work process. We can even ask Him to reveal to us when we need to do so. Since everything is made more efficient with God, stepping away to honor Him by focusing entirely on Him positions us for transformation, opens His gateway to wisdom, restores our joy and enables us to flow out of His Glorious Presence with something we cannot contain. Our work will be finished His way, and it won’t feel heavy.

Considering this, why then would we eat at our desks when we can feast at His table of abundance, especially knowing that we cannot complete a God-size mission our way? We must let go of the “just one more thing” attitude and the “I have to get this done now” self-justification.

Grace

God’s truth is that we desperately need His help. We cannot finish higher assignments without Him. It’s important to consistently choose God’s beautiful way over our own hard habits. We can honor Him by yielding to His Fruit of Spirit, trusting that we don’t have to do it all on our own.

Breaking away with God facilitates our purity of priority, our sense of what matters most. We need His surges of grace-power, which is His Holy ease, that re-sets us and fuels us for the long haul so that we don’t give into the pressure of overload that can provoke us to give up the task. We can even ask Him to increase His grace-power so we can work more efficiently with Him.

Therefore, we must leave room for God’s grace and not grieve Holy Spirit or choke out His Word. We don’t have to know how He will do what He promised us. We just need to believe He will do what He said. God’s truth is that “His lavish gift is life eternal, found in your union with our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One” (Ro 6:23). This Heavenly life enters into our souls as we believe Him by faith in action.

Conversely, the opposition to God’s grace-life for us would suggest we act out of self-reliance and wait until all is good enough in our personal lives to do the very life-giving things God commanded us to step up and do. God is about living a Heavenly life of abundance on earth. He is not in our limited self-reliance, which reveals our unbelief and always produces corruption (Ga 6:8 TPT).

Proverbs 3:7 AMPC reminds us to “Be not wise in your own eyes; reverently fear and worship the Lord and turn [entirely] away from evil. [Prov. 8:13.]”

Persistence

I love God’s imagery of commitment and strategy of Godly determination in Song of Songs 4:6 TPT, which says, “I’ve made up my mind. Until the darkness disappears and the dawn has fully come, in spite of shadows and fears, I will go to the mountaintop with you—the mountain of suffering love and the hill of burning incense. Yes, I will be your bride.”

This verse reflects persistence, which is another key element Holy Spirit highlighted to me. Everyday worship implies persistence. So, resist the lie that everything has to be finished right now. Find a way to take time to step away from your workspace and praise God. Put on your favorite worship music, focus entirely on Him, speak adorations and appreciations to Him and simply revel in His Presence. It will make all the difference in enjoying your journey and even in being able to finish your assignments according to God’s will (Ec 7:8).

Wisdom

The final key element God highlighted to me is wisdom. Everyday worship is wise and facilitates an atmosphere where wisdom is revealed and received. It’s one way God builds us in Him and with Him.

Proverbs 24:3 TPT says, “Wise people are builders — they build families, businesses, communities. And through intelligence and insight their enterprises are established and endure.”

Proverbs 24:13-15 TPT reminds us that “Revelation-knowledge is a delicacy, sweet like flowing honey that melts in your mouth. Eat as much of it as you can, my friend! For then you will perceive what is true wisdom, your future will be bright, and this hope living within you will never disappoint you.”

As our Bread of Life, upon which we feast, we must know God and understand His purpose for us in divine assignments in order to fulfill them with Him. As we are strengthened in our Lord in this way, we will live out His truth that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. We will come to better know Him and understand His power and our purpose.

Ephesians 5:17 AMPC reminds us to “…not be vague and thoughtless and foolish, but understanding and firmly grasping what the will of the Lord is.”

So, it is crucial to invest time in God’s Presence of Word and other forms of worship, like prayer and praise, where we are entirely focused on Him in truth.

Let Us Remember

Let us remember that solutions and resolve come not by looking back but by looking up to the Peacemaker.

If we will persist in life-giving worship of Him, He will expand His victory-directives to us. We will be energized and know His new mercy, increased grace and fresh insight for each day forward. We will know His gracious mountain-moving power by faith, and we will see His manifest miracles in our work lives and beyond.

So, pray with me if you will…

Dear Lord,

We need You. We thank You that “The harvest of the earth is here!” You, “the very God we worship, keeps us satisfied at” Your “banquet of blessings” (Ps 67:6 TPT). We repent of grieving You, Holy Spirit, by not receiving Your invitation to come away with You when You prompt us. Help us to honor You by submitting to Your loving ways and remaining entwined with You! Help us to go where You call and lead us. Let Your faith be in us to move mountains (Mk 11:22-24 TPT)! Thank You for Your blessed rewards.

In Jesus’ Mighty Name.

Amen.

This video-devo was graciously re-posted by the Salem Web Network, which includes iBelieve.com.

Beautiful Life – Part 2

Perspective determines a lot in regards to experiencing a beautiful life. We’ve heard the adage, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”

So, what are we beholding?

Since, our choices largely hinge on our vision and thoughts, it’s important to renew our minds with what our Lord regards as beautiful.

Proverbs 15:30 TPT says, “Eyes that focus on what is beautiful bring joy to the heart, and hearing a good report refreshes and strengthens the inner being.”

Philippians 4:8 TPT says, “Keep your thoughts continually fixed on all that is authentic and real, honorable and admirable, beautiful and respectful, pure and holy, merciful and kind. And fasten your thoughts on every glorious work of God, praising him always.”

Even Dictionary.com defines beautiful as “possessing qualities that give great pleasure or satisfaction to see, hear, think about…” Beautiful thoughts and speech are examples. 

To be sure, God is our “crown of glory and a diadem of beauty for the remnant of his people” (Is 28:5 TPT). He is our Spirit of justice and our strength and bravery (Is 28:6 TPT).

I recall a moment years ago, where someone, who had lost a relative, approached me and asked questions. This woman, who was a leader in her church, seemed to not understand why her relative, whom she regarded as beautiful and good, was taken before others, whom she regarded as not so beautiful or good. While I appreciated her honesty and trust, I couldn’t help notice that her focus was clearly on her relative’s beauty and goodness, not God’s.

Very recently, our Lord gave me a deeper level of understanding on the matter, revealing that If He had spared the beautiful and good relative from passing into eternity, it would have been nice for the remaining family in a way. But some glory would have likely been attributed to that beautiful relative for their goodness. 

However, when God miraculously spares someone thought to be not so good or beautiful in behavior, God gets the full glory for His rich mercy. Not the person. What the person gets is an expression of God’s love as rich mercy, which softens their heart toward Him. They know they don’t deserve it, and they attribute their life to God’s merciful miracles. In this way, they become a living testament to God’s mercy, power and love, which showcases Him alone.

But when we make it about ourselves, our strengths limit God in our lives. Our submission to Him as our “beautiful strength” in our weaknesses invites His grace-strength to work on our behalf beyond our abilities (Ps 92:15 TPT). This is where God gets the greater glory and we are made grateful. It’s where He works out His redemption in our lives to make them even more beautiful.

What the good and beautiful believers get as they go on to be with our Lord is a Heavenly life of merciful and gracious redemption, which they don’t deserve either.

So, through Christ alone, we experience a more beautiful life with Him shinning most brightly, as we worship Him. 

Our Spirit of grace offers us a Holy ease, so we don’t have to overwork and wear ourselves out early. He will share His wisdom and insight to help us. Our worst enemy is trying too hard to do it our way. Instead, let’s be lovers of God, who seek Him, find Him and lead others to Him (SS 6:1).

Galatians 6:8 TPT says, “The harvest you reap reveals the seed that you planted. If you plant the corrupt seeds of self-life into this natural realm, you can expect a harvest of corruption. If you plant the good seeds of Spirit-life you will reap beautiful fruits that grow from the everlasting life of the Spirit.”

So, pray with me, if you will, from Holy Scripture… 

Dear Lord, 

We bless Your “beautiful Name” (Ps 45:11, 100:4 TPT).

Thank You for seeing us as beautiful, rescuing us and bringing us into a beautiful broad place (Ps 18:19 TPT).

“O Lord our God, let your sweet beauty rest upon us. Come work with us, and then our works will endure; you will give us success in all we do” (Ps 90:17 TPT).

“Let me share in the wealth and beauty of all your devoted lovers, rejoice with your nation in all their joys, and let me share in the glory you give to your chosen ones” (Ps 106:5 TPT).

“Our hearts bubble over as we celebrate the fame of your marvelous beauty, bringing bliss to our hearts. We shout with ecstatic joy over your breakthrough for us” (Ps 145:7 TPT).

“Everything I am will praise and bless the Lord! O Lord, my God, your greatness takes my breath away, overwhelming me by your majesty, beauty, and splendor” (Ps 104:1 TPT)!

Like meditating on Your Word, may we lift up praise to You “from dawn to dusk,” from “sunrise-brilliance to sunset-beauty” (Ps 113:3 TPT)!

Help us “to be teachers of beautiful things” (Titus 2:3 TPT).

In Jesus’ Mighty Name, 

Amen.

Friends, there’s even more that you won’t want to miss. So, join me next week for Part 3 of Beautiful Life.

This video-devo was graciously re-posted by the Salem Web Network, which includes iBelieve.com.