I went to the Synergize 2020 Conference in Orlando, Florida at the end of January. It was amazing. The speakers were great and through them God spoke some nuggets in my heart. It is so wonderful to see people on fire for the Lord. They did not care what anyone thought about them, they cared more about what God thought about them.
The speakers came from all over the world. They talked about the challenges they faced preaching the gospel and doing God’s will. For many of us the only challenge we face in America is to be brave enough to tell someone about God. We can read our bible in public. We do not have to hide it. We can talk about our faith to others and not be put in jail. We have worship places we go to worship at every Sunday. We do not have to walk to get to our worship place, unless we want to. Many of us have access to the bus, cab, Uber, etc. To hear someone, talk about how they walked for days to get to a worship meeting. Now many of us do not even leave our homes, because now you can view worship services online. Some of us when we get to worship services, we need to be prodded to worship God. The worship leaders and the praise team must encourage us to worship him.
God blesses each and everyone of us every day. We need to stop taking him for granted. We need to stop thinking we can bring God any old kind of praise. He requires that we praise him from the depths of our hearts. Our praise should not only be about what he blessed us with. It should also be about who our he is. He is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the lily in the valley, the bright and morning star, he is who he says he is. When I think about Jesus and what he did for me on the cross, so I can have access to eternal life, I cannot help but praise him. I can never repay him for what he has done for me.
Have you ever thought about why you praise him? Are you praising him because others do? Are you praising him because someone told you to? God is looking for those who will praise him in spirit and truth. He is looking for authentic praise that comes out from the depths of our soul. We were created to praise the Lord.
The next time we go to worship service let us think about how God saves, blesses, protects, heals, provides and loves us unconditionally. Then let our worship reflect how we feel about God. If he rationed out his blessings based on how we serve him, we would all be in a world of trouble. God who loves us. When we go to him and repent of our sins, he cleans the slate and allows us to begin again. He does not hold our past sins against us, because he wants us to have a prosperous life. He wants us to succeed at the callings on our lives. He wants us to manifest the gifts and talents he has given us. We have someone who is always in our corner, cheering us on and pushing us forward. Just for that he deserves our praise.
LSW
Linda Sharp-Williams 