Grace and peace to you from our Lord Jesus Christ! Welcome to the „Daily Word for Spiritual Edification”!Yesterday we established that the more you see God, the less you see your problems.I will never forget how I prayed to God once, being in a very difficult situation and God told me, “If the only thing you see is the mountain of your problems, then it will be bigger than your God, and it won’t change unless you stop focusing on the problems. If you focus on your problem and think about your pain, then it grows bigger and does not change and it gets rooted in your life. But if you stop looking at your hurt and focus on God and get to know Him, then you are able to see His greatness and power, – and then your ‘mountain’ grows smaller and smaller”.This word encouraged me. Worship teaches us to think about God and not the problem. Worship changes us. If you worship God every day, we are able to see Him and His great abilities. Paul says:
«For in Him we live and move and have our being…» (Acts, 17:28).
The next thing that helps us to worship God is declaration of our adoration towards God. „I will praise You with my whole heart; before the gods I will sing praises to You. I will worship toward Your holy temple, and praise Your name for Your loving-kindness and Your truth; for You have magnified Your word above all Your name. In the day when I cried out, Your answered me, and made me bold with strength in my soul. All the kings of the earth shall praise You, O LORD, when they hear the words of Your mouth» (Psalm, 138:1-4).
David said that he would keep silent, but praise God, because his God is great and helps him at any time. David loudly declared God’s greatness, power and mercy.The other side of worship is thanksgiving. If worship is pondering upon God, His character, His qualities, then thanksgiving is an expression of my gratitude toward God. There is always something to thank God for. Lack of gratitude, grumbling, complaining – these are the things that grieve God. Because of them the nation of Israel did not enter the Promised Land. God did so much for Israel, but they never stopped grumbling. We as parents feel hurt when we see out children unhappy and ungrateful. Sometimes it makes us cry. It also hurts God when His children do not notice the blessings He has given us. Let’s not grieve God, – let’s make Him happy by being grateful and praising Him. We make God happy when we are grateful. «In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you» (1 Thessalonians, 5:18).We must be grateful to God in all things. When things go fine and when God answers our prayers, it is easy to thank God, – at those times we thank God and adore Him. But as soon as God decides to answer us in a way that does not fit our plans, we start thinking whether there is any sense in prayer. The Bible calls us to thank God in everything. The Bible calls us to praise God aloud so that other people would hear it. Be grateful to God, praise him, and sing to Him – aloud! Thanksgiving is the very model of prayer that Jesus gave to His disciples. «In everything give thanks» (1 Thessalonians, 5:18).
Abundant God’s blessings to you on this day!Till tomorrow!Pastor Rufus AjiboyeПастор Руфус Аджибойе
