I am in an experiment to show myself a person can put God first, seek first his kingdom, and spend time with God daily. The experiment seeks to show if a person does put God first then not only will a crazy job and life not fall apart- it will thrive.
I thought this was a test to show the above- you know what it really is turning out to be? A healthy lifestyle habit of spending time with the Lord and planning things around that, a time to learn from the Lord, and a trick. The trick is on me. I thought this was about me reaching out to God and hoping he would help me with life because I made him the center of life. It may well be that but its more. The trick is that the more I draw near to the Lord- the more of Him I want. The more I push myself toward God every day - the more I want Him. The trick is God is addicting- and the trick is on me.
I heard about a guy years and years ago who was single and a major weight-lifting / working-out guy. I remember someone telling me in awe that he wouldn't go out with his girlfriend until he had worked out. That is such a funny and immature thing to remember. I think what resonates with me in the story is the no-limits devotion of it even though its a silly example. If a guy like that can make a girlfriend take the back-burner for a bicep- how much more should I make life take a back-burner to seek the Lord.
Ok, all of that was just a bonus- I want to tell you about my worship experience at church today. I was singing to the Lord with everyone else and my mind slightly went off track for a minute. I was thinking about the Middle East and the Muslim world and how vast and lost it seemed- it seemed impenetrable and hopeless in my mind. All of those thoughts cascaded over me as I sang with my mouth- but worried about these people with my heart. However as I sang maybe the Lord made me aware of the words I was singing or maybe what happened was independent of the words of that song but the Lord suddenly showed me that I had a stronghold in my mind or my heart. The stronghold was believing the Lord COULDN'T reach the Middle East and the Islamic peoples. Once I realized I had this fear, worry, and doubt and that I was intimidated by the thought of trying to reach the vast Islamic nations I felt sorry. I realized I had set these nations up before the Lord as unreachable. I understood fully that I had doubted the Lord.
Honestly, I believed a lie and the time of coming to the Lord in song and worship- even in my imperfect and distracted way allowed the Holy Spirit to identify and break a stronghold of doubt and hopelessness I had. I now wanted to believe God that they would all be saved! My heart went immediately from doubt- to belief that God could reach them!
Its marvelous when the Lord sets you free from any lie. When we come to worship it should just be with the simple motive to worship God - but He will often work on us during worship. My observation is that there are various tools the Lord uses to work on us. I've highlighted prayer a lot so far in these 23 days of the 30 day test but my worship experience today compels me to mention the tool or weapon of worship. We don't have to wait for a church service to sing for God. You can easily go to Pandora.com and type in "Chris Tomlin", "Hillsong United", "New Life Worship", or "Gateway Worship" (my church), and have a great experience of worshiping the Lord.
I now have a strong desire to pray in faith for Muslim lands. I am not sure where that is going but I don't think the Lord set me free from my blindness and doubt just to be free- I think I am supposed to pray for them. Lord help me!
Bible Passage:
Psalm 68 - this is what spoke to me in my Psalm of the day:
5 A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows,
Is God in His holy habitation.
6 God sets the solitary in families;
He brings out those who are bound into prosperity;
But the rebellious dwell in a dry land.
......
35 O God, You are more awesome than Your holy places.
The God of Israel is He who gives strength and power to His people. Blessed be God!
My family and I have 2 "family Psalms". Our first one is Psalm 91 and Psalm 68 is our second one- so today is pretty special. If that sounds strange then you haven't yet experienced the unique and special beauty of adopting scriptures as your own. This particular Psalm is quite long and it has a lot of power in it but I highlighted three of the main verses that we like. V.5-6 is special because we love to think about our awesome God as being the "father of the fatherless, a defender of widows" - because it shows just how amazingly compassionate God is and it also highlights God's heart for adoption which we share. V6 also talks about how God frees people which is such an encouragement and then we love the last verse and how it says "The God of Israel is He who gives strength and power to His people. Blessed be God." Its like the author is so aware of God's help and the power God gives to His people he just has to wind it up with "Blessed be God". We get a real charge out of Psalm 68- and the God behind it.
Let's GO God!
All scriptures quoted in the New King James Version (NKJV) of the Bible which is Copyrighted by Thomas Nelson. Scriptures obtained from www.biblegateway.com
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