O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you.
My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water.
I have seen you in your sanctuary and gazed upon your power and glory.
Your unfailing love is better to me than life itself; how I praise you!
I will honor you as long as I live, lifting up my hands to you in prayer.
You satisfy me more than the richest of foods.
I will praise you with songs of joy.
I lie awake thinking of you, meditating on you through the night.
I think how much you have helped me;
I sing for joy in the shadow of your protecting wings.
I follow close behind you; your strong right hand holds me securely.Psalm 63:1-8Psalm 63:1-8
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
God's Love Means More than Life 63 1 63 Title. You are my God. I worship you. In my heart, I long for you, as I would long for a stream in a scorching desert. 2 I have seen your power and your glory in the place of worship. 3 Your love means more than life to me, and I praise you. 4 As long as I live, I will pray to you. 5 I will sing joyful praises and be filled with excitement like a guest at a banquet. 6 I think about you before I go to sleep, and my thoughts turn to you during the night. 7 You have helped me, and I sing happy songs in the shadow of your wings. 8 I stay close to you, and your powerful arm supports me.
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Do you long for God in this way?
I know that I often just get busy. I forget to take the time to seek after God passionately, with all that I am. That’s not a good thing! When we live our lives separated from God, we become weak.
Our culture doesn’t make this any easier. We live with the expectation that there is no stopping. If you are finished with one task, then it’s on to the next. Time is money, as they say, and if you can’t show the dollar value of something, then why are you wasting your time on it?
Maybe that’s a little cynical, but we truly do fail to worship God regularly. And we think we can make up for it one day a week. Let me be upfront. If you aren’t finding time to worship God personally, throughout the week, then you are probably not giving God the worship he deserves on Sunday. And you probably aren’t growing the way you need to be to accomplish God’s purpose in your life.
Okay, that out of the way, what does personal worship look like? Well… what do you think it looks like?
There are a lot of ways that we can worship God. Through prayer we can tell him what we think of Him. We can recognize Him for all that he had done and continues to do for us, our families, and our friends. This might be done standing, sitting, face down, or lying on a float in the pool.
Maybe you reserve it for the car or the shower, but a little “joyful noise” never hurt anyone either. Singing and shouting is liberating; it lifts our faith beyond the regular dreariness of work and life. It’s usually not our normal voice, so it causes us to have to break down some of the barriers we put up.
You may find that worship for you involves finding a quiet place. A place where you can be alone and still. That might be just the place to have a close and personal conversation with God, one where you can acknowledge your sinfulness, or praise Him for His greatness.
I am not going to give you a definitive guide to personally worshiping God. The avenues to worship are endless, bounded only by your creativity, and your determination to make worship a priority.
That’s really what it comes down to. At the end of the day, when you ask yourself, “Did I spend time with God?” you are essentially asking yourself if you have put something in front of Him. It doesn’t matter if it is work, the house, or one of a thousand other potential distractions. It screams loudly where our priorities are.
prayer
God, thank your for what you are doing in my life. Help me to seek you with the kind of longing from Psalm 63. Help me to raise my voice to worship you. Help me to lose sleep to build pour relationship! Teach me to desire you more than food, more than money, more than fame. You are so awesome.
In Jesus’ name, amen.
This post was originally distributed through PDF in conjunction with the New Me series, July 15, 2007.
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