This morning I woke at four A.M. to get ready for work. After a fifty-minute drive, my schedule had been changed, and someone failed to notify me. In the whole scheme of things, the extra drive and the early rise are insignificant. However, during an entire day, such irritations can build up drag a soul down.
Ben Franklyn said, "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man wealthy, healthy, and wise." I doubt that is always the case, but early to rise to praise and pray to God, if done well, will make a man humble, wise, and most importantly, fill his heart with joy.
We Need To Worship Well
For worship, men were created; if they don't worship the one true and living God, they are sure to worship a false god that with neither eyes to see nor ears to hear. Worship either enslaves men or sets them free. The idol enslaves.
Jesus said, "But a time is coming, and even now has arrived when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers." (John 4:23) "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:16, 17) The question remains to us, what does such worship look like? First, what does it mean to worship the Father in spirit?
Worship Lost
"The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." (Genesis 2:15 - 17)
On the day that Adam and Eve sinned, they were spared physical death by the grace of God. He made for them a covering of skins from animals because, as the writer of Hebrews tells us, " Indeed, under the law, almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins." (Hebrews 9:22).
However, on that day, Adam, Even, and all their future offspring experience spiritual death. "And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross." (Colossians 2:13, 14)
Worship Found
To receive Jesus Christ is to receive His righteousness as He has received the penalty demanded by God. We are forgiven as He was forsaken. So then, the one who believes in Jesus is made alive together with Him, as the writer of Colossians tells us.
The second and most vital element for our consideration, having been made alive with Him, we are then to worship Jesus in truth. No so-called worship built upon a lie or self-deception will do. Self-proclamation is out. Jesus said, "For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed." (John 3:20) The Christian walk is a day-by-day experience by which we reject the Holy Spirit that convicts us of sin, or we call it what it is, and bring it to the cross.
By the former, we forfeit the spirit of true worship and live a lie. The Christian who desires Jesus over his sinful pride receives Jesus daily. His worship is pleasing to God and fills his heart with joy. "But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God." (Vs.21)
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