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Tag Archives: Worship

FAITH: What It Does

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Faith produces affection. Faith in Christ is the fountain from which affections for Christ spring. A believer cannot trust Christ without loving him, nor can he love Christ apart from trusting him. The Psalms are full of examples of faith producing affection.

The writer of Psalm 42 and 43 desperately wants to be near God. His faith is pursuing finding his soul’s satisfaction in God. The psalmist opens his song by saying, “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?” The structure of Psalm 42:1 is a simile.

So, in the NASB, it reads: “As the deer pants for the water brooks (a) , So my soul pants for You (b), O God.” In the same manner that a deer pursues the water brooks for survival and refreshment, so too, the psalmist’s soul “pants” for God. He pursues God by faith for real safety and refreshment.

Faith produces an affection for God in the soul of man. God’s power and ability to touch the deepest part of a person through faith are described vividly. When we remember and believe the wonders of God, our souls are utterly welled with affection. It is God who is ultimately responsible for the waves of trial, so it is to God that the psalmist turns to in faith for eternally satisfying relief. As Matthew Henry says, “When the soul rests on itself, it sinks; if it catches hold on the power and promise of God, the head is kept above the billows. And what is our support under present woes but this, that we shall have comfort in Him.”

The Psalmist’s faith in God produces affection for him. So much so that his soul “pants”  for God with powerful affection. Knowing and trusting in how wonderful and awesome God is produces affection for God.

That affection strengthens the faith of the believer to trust God more. That affection demonstrates itself in godly practice. One such godly practice is praising God. The writer of Psalm 95 erupts in a song of praise to God on the basis of his faith in and affection for the greatness of God. He says:

Oh come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.

From affectionate hearts for God flows godly practice. There is no greater godly practice to be done than that of worship. Praising God is a form of worship, but only if it flows from a heart of affection for and faith in God.

A Lesson From Daniel

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Nebuchadnezzar was the proud king of Babylon who ignored the God of Israel and saw himself as greater than God. But God humbled Nebuchadnezzar:

“He was driven from among men and ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair grew as long as eagles’ feathers, and his nails were like birds’ claws.  At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, ‘What have you done?’”

Nebuchadnezzar no longer saw himself as the source of his greatness, but he saw the God of Israel as the truly great One and the only One worthy of being treasured and receiving praise. Once Nebuchadnezzar was humbled and understood and treasured God for who he truly was, his heart could not help but burst into praise to God the Most High.

Adoring God Through Praising God (Part 1)

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Psalm 19:14 says, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.” David understands the connection between words of praise and a heart of worship. He does not simply pray that the words of his mouth be acceptable, but that the meditations of his heart as well.

How can David’s words of praise be acceptable to God? By God making the meditations of David’s heart acceptable. Notice how David refers to God in his heart. He calls God, “LORD, my rock and my redeemer.” The meditations of David’s heart are on God as his sovereign Lord who is the strong, stable and true redeemer of David’s life. As David meditates on God’s sovereignty, surety and kind compassion as redeemer his heart is welled up with affection for his God. With such a heart so lovingly devoted to God it would be impossible for David’s words not to be acceptable.

Blessed Be . . . God?

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If you are like me, then when you read the first few verses of Paul’s letters you want to just skip right over them and get to the “important” stuff. I often wondered why Paul spent so much time introducing his letters with phrases like “Grace and peace to you from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” As I began to research the book of Ephesians for a Sunday school class I was teaching in my local church, I wanted to hurry up and get to chapter two and “the important stuff” where Paul talks about salvation being by faith alone through grace alone. Little did I know that for the next three years my life would be stuck on one verse, and one word in that verse; “blessed.”

At first glance, it seems a little odd that the Bible would say that God is “blessed.” We use this term in reference to people, but it doesn’t seem to fit when talking about God. A good friend of mine loves to answer people who ask, “How are you?” with the response “I’m blessed.” When we say that we are “blessed” we typically mean that God has been good to us. Sometimes we mean that we have a comfortable life or even that we just feel good. But is that what it means for God to be blessed? Does God make himself comfortable or feel good?

I think it is important to understand what Paul meant, but in order to do that we have to look at the Greek (insert scary music). Don’t worry, its really not that complicated, it is actually quite simple. In tomorrow’s post we’ll explore in depth what Paul meant when he said God was “blessed.”

The Word & Worship (Part 2)

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In Psalm 19:7-8a, David echoes the very same truths of the Apostle Paul. He says, “The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart.” God’s Word is perfect. It does not contain any errors or mistakes. Whenever it speaks it speaks the truth. God’s Word is trustworthy and reliable. We can put our trust in it and it will never steer us wrong. God’s Word is just. It is authoritative on everything is speaks about. It is fair and final in everything. Because of all this, God’s Word revives our soul and gives us strength. It opens our eyes to behold the glory of God and savor it. It gives us the grace and wisdom we so desperately need to live our daily life. It causes our hearts to rejoice in soul satisfying joy. Knowing and experiencing God comes through knowing His Word. David trusts the Lord because he trusts His Word.

As God’s Word becomes more and more a part of our life, the more we appreciate the words of Jonathan Edwards:

“There is a difference in believing that God is holy and gracious, and having a new sense on the heart of the loveliness and beauty of that holiness and grace. The difference between believing that God is gracious and tasting that God is gracious is as different as having a rational belief that honey is sweet and having the actual sense of its sweetness.”

We don’t want to just know that God is lovely; we want to experience His loveliness. We don’t just want to know about God, but experience his him. In experiencing God we experience his love, and in return, we love him more. Love for God will overpower any desire for status or stuff that the world has to offer. We experience God’s overpowering love by faith as we renew our minds with the Word of God.

The Word & Worship (Part 1)

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I loved playing with train sets as a kid. I remember clearly one Christmas when I was 10 years old getting my first train set. When I took it down to the basement I opened the box to set it up, and much to my horror, I couldn’t find the instructions. Somehow this box had made it to the shelves of our local retail store without a set of instructions. My insides panicked. How was I going to play with this train set and enjoy all the excitement and pleasure from it if I didn’t know how to make it work?

Much like that train set, if we know that true worship is finding our satisfaction in God and we earnestly desire to find it in him but are never told how, we can easily be tempted to panic. Fortunately for us, Paul wrote for us Romans 12:2:

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

There are actually two commands in this verse and we will take them one at a time. Paul’s first command is “Do not be conformed to this world.” This is a summation of the first part of this chapter. Conformity to the world is living like they live. Paul is not saying we can’t wear the same clothes or listen to the same music. He is saying we can’t find our ultimate joy and satisfaction in the things that the world does. The world says sex, money, popularity, position, friendships and recognition will make you happy. Paul tells us not to believe a word of it.

However, there is also a second command. Paul says, “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” What is that? To be transformed is to move from pursuing ultimate joy in the world to pursuing ultimate joy in Christ. How do we do that? Through retraining our thinking with the word of God. Renewing our minds means strengthening our faith in God. Fortunately Paul shows us how in Romans 10:17: “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” Just like the world lies to you, the Word of God speaks the truth. We combat lies with God’s truth; His Word. Through the prayerful reading and meditation on God’s Word we renew our minds and transform our hearts.

In essence, we could say that Paul’s message is, “Do not be like this world that tries to find ultimate joy in status and stuff, but become like Christ by finding your ultimate satisfaction in all that God is for you in Christ. Discover who God is and what he has done through his Word.”

Continue with part 2 tomorrow . . .

Worship: The Heart of Our Identity

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When we use the word “worship” in modern evangelical circles it invokes images of Sunday morning congregations singing hymns or praise and worship songs to a piano, organ, or even electric guitars and drums. When you first read the title of this post you may have thought that it was about singing and playing music on Sunday mornings. But when I use the word worship I am speaking of what every person ever created was born to do.

What one thing occupies your thoughts? What drives you to be the person you are? If you were to ask yourself what the single most important thing in your life is, what one single thing your treasure in your heart above everything else, would you say that it is God? It would be tempting to say, “God” as your answer because years of preconditioning in Sunday school has taught you that nine times out of ten that is the right answer. Be honest with yourself. Most of us know that the answer should be “God.” But the truth is that God is not occupying the center of our lives. Moreover, we don’t know how to make him the most important thing in our life. Most of us have been taught the “what” of Christianity, but few of us seem to understand the “how.” Simply knowing that God should be the prized possession of our hearts doesn’t make him so.

Worshiping God is about more than what style of music you have on Sunday mornings. Worshiping God is living daily at setting God as the highest object of your affection and ultimate source of joy through faith in Jesus Christ. It is through knowing and trusting in Christ by faith as the perfect image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15) that we experience all that the Father is and has done for us, and thereby engage in true worship.

CyberChimps