are you ready to worship?

Are we living our lives like we truly believe that God is our Lord and Master? Do we reverence Him and respect Him like He is so deserving of? Are there times that we are simply going through the motions but not really giving Him our whole heart and our full devotion?

It is easy to get caught up in the religiosity of our lives and not focus on the spirituality of our purpose here. We can just find ourselves going to church because "that's what we do" and not going because we have a deep and intense longing to be in the House of the Lord. 

If you find yourself in this place right now, it is not the end of the world. It's just time to get things right. Spend some much needed time in prayer. Some serious face-down, flat on the floor kind of prayer. Cry out to God and ask Him to forgive you for your negligence of His Holiness. Earnestly confess and repent. Then spend some time thanking Him for the many blessings He bestows on you daily! Begin to utter praises to His Name. Praise Him for who He is. Praise Him for His mighty Creation. Praise Him with all that you have within you. When you rise from the floor, you will be different. Purpose within yourself that it is time to be more passionate in your pursuit of God. Begin each day in a time of praise. God will move in your life and next Sunday, you will find yourself running to the church house ready to worship your King!

"Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord.

Praise ye the Lord"

(Psalm 150:6)

Seeking Higher in all things of Him,

Just like Putting on a Coat

"To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified."  Isaiah 61:3 (KJV Italics mine)

As adults, we've all had times when we were down about this or that and then we forced ourselves to praise God. Suddenly, we noticed the feeling of heaviness lifting off of us. I know for myself, it works every time!

I love the verse in Isaiah that talks about an actual garment of praise which will replace the spirit of heaviness. It is powerful truth, so how do we encourage our children to try this? Have you ever tried to force your child to sing a praise song when they were in a bad mood? I have, and it hasn't worked for me! I can't force them to praise. Choosing to praise is an act similar to that of putting on a coat. I can give you a coat, but unless you lift your arms and put it on, it won't keep you warm.

Just last week, as I was driving my children to school, three of my kids began bickering in the back seat. It was the second day in a row that fighting broke out on our 15 minute drive. Trust me when I say that by the time we got to school everyone was in a bad mood, and you could feel the heaviness in our van. Noticing this bad pattern, I decided to try a different approach the next morning. We got into the car and as soon as the bickering began I simply turned on the childrens praise CD I had secretly inserted earlier. By the end of the second song, most of my kids were singing along and the rest of the ride to school was delightful! They even began talking about "funny" things that had happened to them recently. What a delightful change!

Hey, sometimes us Mom's need to be sneaky in our teaching!