Worship

by Michelle
from Virtuous Daughters, December 2014~Volume 14, Number 9

​Philippians 4:6 “Be careful for nothing: but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.”
 
Worship is not just something you do at church when you sing songs and pray. No, worship is the way you should lead every day of your lives. Your life should worship God daily in every act you perform. Your life should be an act of worship. When you live a life sacrificed to God, every act needs to come into obedience to God’s Word. Your thoughts, what you look at, read, where you go, who you are friends with, the words you speak, your dress, how you spend your time, your money, what you eat and drink, how much self-control you have, and finally, love. It all turns out as an act of worship. Others can see by your life and character Whom you serve.

As you give more of yourself to Christ and follow His Word daily, He changes you and your life turns into a daily act of worship to Him. From the moment you awake in the morning, speak your first thoughts and words to Him by committing the day into His hands. When Christ leads you and convicts you, and you mourn over your sin, the kingdom of heaven is promised to you. As this process takes place, Christ transforms your heart, mind, and soul and calls you to holiness. As He says, “Be ye holy, for I am holy,” so we aspire to please Him.
 
Wrestling with sin issues is a very good thing. It shows that you have been convicted of sin—proof that the Holy Spirit is speaking to you and is active in your life. Your attempt to pray about an issue and come to agree with God about the issue as sin is called obedience. When times you can’t overcome and you have to cry out to God to help you, you are learning to trust God. You are learning that He is big, strong, and holy, and that He is your High Tower, Salvation, only Hope.
 
Never try to drown out the voice of God in your life. If the Holy Spirit convicts you of sin, you need to immediately agree with Him and ask Him to deal completely with you on the subject until it is resolved. The danger of turning away when God reveals truth is that He will not allow you to progress any further until you obey Him on the point He is talking to you about. Everything stops if you close your heart to Him and refuse to obey Him. You will enter into a process of correction and divine rebuke.
 
How do you enter into this worship I am describing? It begins with reading God’s Word and prayerfully asking Christ to teach you, convict you of sin, and to make you holy as He is holy. It is a day-to-day occurrence. It is being obedient every time He points out sin and failure in your life, or at least being honest enough to say you don’t have the strength to overcome an issue and cry out for His divine strength and help. It is seeking out wisdom as you would for silver and gold. If you know you should seek God, but just really don’t have the desire, ask God to put an incredible flame in your heart to seek Him daily in Bible reading and prayer. As you do, you will see incredible life transformation that’s real and that will glorify God. You will learn to hear the voice of God and follow Him. But it’s training; it comes by experience. You learn to hear the voice of God by seeking Him. You must open His Word daily and learn to hear Him as you pray and ask Christ to speak to you, teach you, change your heart, and to make you holy as He is holy.
 
Pray—prayer is speaking to God. He desires us to speak to Him. Make your first words, words spoken to Him alone. Commit your day into His hands. Think of Christ as you awake in the morning, then proceed to pray and seek the Lord. As you go through your day, ask God what you should wear. Have you ever considered that what you wear reflects on your God and the condition of your heart? Yes, of course. The fruits of your spirit actually bear themselves in your conduct, dress, and speech, as well as in every aspect of your life. The condition of your bedroom, the car you choose to drive, etc., are all results of what’s in your heart. You need to strive for the fruit of God’s Spirit to come through you. That true fruit is obtained by walking with God daily. Making Christ preeminent in your life will naturally cause His fruit to flow through your heart to glorify Him. That is when your daily life becomes a natural act of worship—when you give your life totally over to Christ, to use you as an open vessel to do His perfect will however He chooses. We learn to pray in many different forms throughout the day. All day and night praying, interceding, speaking to Him about everything. It is a life of seeking Christ’s will on every issue, being convicted of sin and failure daily, and choosing to become obedient instantly to your heavenly Father. It is reading His Word, meditating and memorizing it. It is making Christ first in everything. He must increase and you must decrease.
 
Go to the parable of the sower in Matthew 13 and see what sin so easily besets you. You must then face it and confess it to God and ask Him to remove the stumbling block in your life. Girls, Romans 12:1-3 should describe us if we are living the powerful Christian life. Read the chapters and verses and prayerfully evaluate whether or not your life lines up with God’s Word.         

​Philippians 2:14-15 “Do all things without murmuring and disputing that you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world.”