Posts about encouraging and instructing our worship

What I Bring to Worship

[A]nd they shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed. Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which He has given you. Deuteronomy 16:16-17

In Israel, the worshippers always brought something with them.
An offering.
Something of value.
Carefully chosen.

But the time of Malachi, the worshippers were bringing something else.
The blind.
The lame.
The sick.
The leftovers.

I have had times worshipping when I brought
Offerings from the bounty of God’s blessing.
My time.
My energy.
A heart and mind ready to hear and be changed.

More often, I’ve brought something else.
Money I would rather spend on other things.
Distraction.
Exhaustion.
A heart and mind ready to move to the next thing.

Hardly according to the blessings the Lord has given me.

Praying

By Paula Wiseman

And Hannah prayed and said: “My heart rejoices in the LORD; My horn is exalted in the LORD. I smile at my enemies, Because I rejoice in Your salvation. 1 Samuel 2:1

Hannah was childless. 1 Samuel chapter 1 describes her frustration and despair in the face of infertility. It also records her petition to God at Shiloh. Chapter 2 records her prayer after receiving her petition.

We looked at this chapter at a recent worship retreat, and honestly, it troubled me. Hannah got what she wanted. It is easy to praise and worship God when He gives us our heart’s desire. What happens when He doesn’t? What about the people who earnestly pray but never receive their petitions? How do they find the words to praise or the heart to worship? How do we get to the place where the prayer in Chapter 2 happens regardless of every other circumstance?

Often I’m better at asking questions than answering them, but let me offer some points to consider.

Our definition of answered prayer is messed up. The truth is God answers every single prayer we offer. Every one. We tend to only count the answers we like. When we get what we want, we testify to answered prayers. When we don’t … we bemoan God’s silence or His inattentiveness.

Let’s look at an example from Hebrews 11, the roll call of faith. We celebrate that litany of victory and deliverance, but things change in verse 35:

Women received their dead raised to life again. And others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Hebrews 11:35

Did you catch that? Some were raised from the dead. Some were tortured to death. They are listed side by side. The outcome is not the final word on faithfulness. In the same way, the outcome is not the final verdict in answered prayers. However, the answers are always rooted in a plan that most of the time we will not see or understand. That is a hard thing to accept.

If you’ve been with me for a while, you know that several years ago we were certain that God was leading us to pursue adoption. The process took years. It was frustrating, with lots of red tape and hoop-jumping, not to mention the financial end of things. Then days before things would be final, it all collapsed, and we were left empty-hearted. In our bewilderment, the question God posed was, will You still trust Me? Who else can I trust? You have the words of eternal life.

Those words, eternal life, that’s what I need. My wants, even my heart’s desires, are usually focused squarely on the here and now. My needs are much deeper. Which brings me back to Hannah. If you read the entirety of her prayer in 1 Samuel 2:1-10, she doesn’t mention the baby. Not once. She mentions God’s sovereignty, His power, His might and His salvation. I think that was her takeaway. God was going to meet her greatest need, for salvation. He was going to provide Israel with a judge. In time He would send His anointed Deliverer. She understood her needs outweighed her wants.

God challenges me to look beyond those wants to my needs which He graciously fulfills. This is not to say it’s an easy thing to accept when you don’t receive. On the contrary, it’s painful, and it can’t be covered over by praise songs, or devotionals, or platitudes. But it forces me to face the question: do I love God or just the things He gives me?

No one is holy like the LORD, For there is none besides You, Nor is there any rock like our God. 1 Samuel 2:2

Think back to a time when you didn’t receive your petition. How did you respond? How did you grow as a result?

Therefore

By Paula Wiseman

“Now therefore, fear the LORD, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the LORD! Joshua 24:14

In chapter 24, Joshua recounts Israel’s history.
God has chosen them, not because they were great and powerful, but because He loved them.
God has provided for them, even during the rebellion and murmuring against Him.
God kept His promises to them.

Because of those facts (therefore):

Stand in awe of Jehovah.
Serve Him with total integrity and commitment, not hypocrisy and halfheartedness.
Get rid of anything that entices you away from that total commitment.

Three tests to prove why God should be worshiped.
Three responses He deserves as a result.

I have the same evidence Israel did.
Therefore, I have the same charge to respond in worship.
Today, and every day.

Confession Enables Worship

By Paula Wiseman

And David said to God, “Was it not I who gave command to number the people? It is I who have sinned and done great evil. But these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand, O LORD my God, be against me and against my father’s house. But do not let the plague be on your people.” 1 Chronicles 21:17

David is one of the most discussed individuals in Scripture. He is supremely devoted to his God, enjoying a unique intimacy but then in the next chapter he throws it all away in a stunning display of arrogance. David does this multiple times. I suppose that is why we love him. He gives us hope in the midst of our unexplainable failures. He also shows us how confession enables worship. 1 Chronicles 21 records the aftermath of one of those failures, and the confession that follows. It is the account of David’s census

On the surface, and from our vantage point thousands of years later, this may not seem like such a big deal. A census makes good administrative sense, right? It wasn’t just a census, though. It was a reckoning of military strength. David wanted to rest on his perceived power and not the God who granted it. Blinded by his need for numerical confirmation of his own greatness, David ignored the advice of his closest advisors and ordered the count.

In verse 8, David prays, “I have sinned greatly in that I have done this thing. But now, please take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.” David is given the choice of judgments to fall on Israel. He chooses three days of plague. Thousands die in a costly lesson on the consequences of misplaced faith.

The prayer in verse 17 comes after David sees the effects of his sin, especially on the multitude of innocent people whose lives are irreparably devastated. It is far more intense and wrenching than his earlier confession. It is after this second confession that God sends instructions to build an altar.

Confession enables worship.

Worship requires fellowship, and there can be no fellowship if sin exists. In verse 8 David asks for his sin to be dealt with. It is a sincere prayer, not unlike one we would pray, I would pray. But then David is allowed to see why sin is so horrible – innocent people suffer because of his sin. Innocent people suffer because of my sin.

It is in the midst of David’s anguish and brokenness over his sin that God invites him to worship. God invites David to worship at the very spot where the Temple will be built, on the same mountain where Abraham would have sacrificed Isaac, on the same mountain where Jesus would deal with sin once and for all.

David buys the ground and offers burnt and peace offerings, the ones offered in faith that God would take away the sin and restore fellowship. In verse 26, God answered with fire.

Confession enables worship, and worship brings about intimacy.

In this season of Advent take some time to consider the amazing gift of Jesus, who not only takes away our sins but restores our fellowship with God. Spend some quiet moments confessing the hurt inflicted on innocent people because of pride and a determination to find strength in ourselves. Then accept the invitation to worship the God who answers by fire, consuming the sin and purifying the sinner.

Build the Altar

By Paula Wiseman

Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. Genesis 8:20

It is easy to pass over these familiar words, but I invite you to stop and linger for a moment. The landscape that greeted Noah and his family upon their exit from the ark was very different from the one they left. Everything they knew from before was gone. There were no friends, no towns, no roads, no merchants, no goods … nothing. The earth around them had been scoured by floodwaters and here they were, alone and isolated.

Noah’s first response is worship. (Build the altar.)

This is the first time the word altar is used in Scripture. Now we know from Cain and Abel that worship, or at least sacrifices had been going on, but here the altar is highlighted. In chapter 6 Noah built the ark. In chapter 8, Noah built an altar. I suspect there is some effort behind that simple statement. Like gathering the stones, for instance. How far did he have to walk to find them? Yes, they were on a mountain, but had the flood washed away all the ones small enough to carry? Did he have to dig them out? And what about trees? Were there any trees left for the wood? Did he have to hack off a piece of the ark? How long did it take to get everything arranged?

Worship required effort. (Build the altar.)

Every clean animal and every clean bird. In chapter 7, God said to take seven of each of the clean animals aboard the ark. There were only seven in the world and here, Noah sacrificed one. He didn’t wait until a sufficient flock or herd had built up. He willingly offering to God what was, in real terms, very costly.

Worship is costly. (Build the altar.)

I had a tremendous opportunity to guide the study and discussion at a small retreat a few weeks ago. This was the first passage we considered. We posed a series of questions. How are you like Noah? Have you ever followed God, not quite knowing what you were in for, only to be dropped in an unfamiliar, maybe even hostile place? Was your first response worship or self-preservation? How effort goes into your worship? What does your worship cost?

You see, Moses wrote this account because there were things that Jehovah wanted His people to know about Him and how to approach Him. It is preserved to teach us as well. Considering Noah, I confess, worship is rarely my first response, and when I do worship, it is often cheap and lazy. So I’m sure it’s a far cry from the sweet-smelling savor in verse 21.

Right now, the most costly thing I could offer is time. I have none to spare. I am overbooked times three. But this morning, I got up early so I could have some quiet. Not reading. Not studying. Not planning or trying to organize what needed to be done. Just quiet. Waiting. Listening.

This season as we celebrate the God who not only preserves us through the flood but who became flesh and dwelled among us, I encourage you to make the effort, bear the cost of quiet moments with Jesus. I encourage you to build the altar.

Power and Glory

By Paula Wiseman

So I have looked for You in the sanctuary, to see Your power and Your glory. Psalm 63:2

We can go to worship to be encouraged,
to be uplifted,
to be energized for the coming week.

We can go to meet with other believers,
to be with family,
to hear God’s word.

We can go to be part of the ministry,
to share our testimonies,
to use our gifts.

We can even go because it is our custom,
fulfill an obligation
obey a command.

But if I come to the sanctuary of God for any other reason
Than to SEE the POWER and GLORY of GOD,

I will miss the point.
And I will go away empty.