Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Worship

Genesis 12:8 (Amplified Bible)
From there he pulled up [his tent pegs] and departed to the mountain on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord.

Worship is "giving God the best that He has given you." When God gives us spiritual blessings in our lives, He wants us to turn around and give it back to Him in love, so that He can in turn use it to bless others. If we try and just keep it to ourselves it becomes "spiritual dry rot", like the manna that the people tried to hoard.(Exodus 16:20) God will never allow us to just hold onto a blessing that He has given us and keep it selfishly.
Bethel is the symbol of fellowship with God; Ai is the symbol of the world. Abram "pitched his tent" in between these two places. It is only through deep and intimate times with God that our service to Him in the world will have any value to it. There is nothing right about rushing in and out of worship, or setting aside only certain days to worship and spend time with God. It must be a daily time, no matter how busy and hectic our lives are. We need to learn to "pitch our tents" and allow ourselves quiet time with Him every day of our lives. God wants us to have perfect harmony, (as Jesus did when He was here), with three area: worship, waiting, and work. We need not jump from one to the other, but have harmony between the three at all times. This is something that is learned, through disciplining ourselves, it will not just "happen".

(My Utmost for His Highest-Oswald Chambers)

Our lives get so busy, everything in life is "instant" or hurry hurry hurry. People have forgotten how important it is to spend time with God, and satan makes sure to distract us any way possible. Don't be surprised at all if you sit down to spend time with your Creator and the phone rings, or a friend stops by, or one of your family members needs something. If it is not an emergency then it is important to ignore any and all distractions and just spend time with God, seeking Him out, learning what He has for you that day, just stopping everything and knowing Who He is and who you are in Him. God knows we have things to do, but He wants and expects us to keep things in harmony and to not leave Him out or last in it all.

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