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From: PurposeDrivenLife.com
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Sent: Wednesday, September 15, 2004 3:27 AM
Subject: Daily Devotional for Wednesday
THE PURPOSE-DRIVENŽ LIFE Daily Devotional September 15, 2004
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When Worship is a "10"
by John Fischer
How many different ways are there to worship God? Probably as
many ways as there are people who worship Him, because worship is primarily
a relationship shaped by who we are. Worship is the shape of your life
lived in awareness of God. It is uniquely yours-a reflection of your
personality, your gifts, your needs and your passions. Your worship has
your own stamp on it.
We are so used to thinking of worship as a corporate, unified
thing, that we reduce it to a shared experience of songs, liturgies, and
orderly services. This, of course, is a part of worship, but it is not the
whole thing. It isn't even the half of it.
Worship is ultimately a state of mind. In its broadest sense,
it is the totality of our relationship with God. It involves talking to
Him, listening for Him, looking for Him behind the scenes of things. It is
being aware of His presence and acknowledging and evaluating His purposes in
all we do. It is chatting with Him-reacting to the world around us, and
imagining His reaction. It is getting familiar with Him through His word so
that we begin to know how He thinks and feels about things. It is, in its
simplest form, a God-consciousness that permeates everything we do.
In an interview recently, a pastor asked me to put my
relationship with God on a scale of one to ten-ten being warm, close and in
fellowship. I thought about the apparent arrogance of putting this at a
ten, but then I realized ten was the right answer, not because I had arrived
at some superior spiritual status that warrants it, but because I live a
life of such quiet desperation that I am constantly in relationship with God
out of necessity. I am conscious of God all the time because I have to be
or I fly apart at the center. I have nothing to hold onto without Him. I
know myself well enough to know that if I am not living my relationship with
God at a "ten," I am living in some form of lie or denial. My need for Him
is the bedrock truth of the matter.
If some of you find this alarming, then read the Psalms, because
I have just described the essence of David's sentiment as expressed in his
prayers and poems. Over and over again, his soul cries out to God, he is in
a dry and thirsty land, he waits patiently for the Lord, and the Lord hears
Him and brings Him comfort.
You don't have to be perfect to be a "10" in your relationship
with God, holding on for dear life will also do the trick.
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