Live a Life of Worship

About two months ago, our pastor gave a message regarding certain vows that as Christians we can commit to or ask God to help us with so that we can have a deeper relationship with Him. Also, so that we can truly experience the victorious Christian life that God wants us all to have.

We used the passage of Scripture found in Psalm 101 where David uttered several "I will" statements and made certain commitments to God so that his life would be well-spent and used fully for the glory of God.

I would like to focus on the very first vow that David makes with the Lord because this was a vow that he really committed to despite the struggles he had with his relationship with God and with his family and the persecution that he endured from his enemies and even by his own people.

I think that it would benefit all of us Christians that, in any aspect of our lives and in our walk with God, we praise and worship Him in all circumstances and situations that we get ourselves into.

Psalm 101:1 says:

"I will sing of your love and justice; to you, O Lord, I will sing praise."

We all know God is a just and a loving, merciful God whom we can call Father as we have been made right with Him and became His children through Jesus Christ.

God's love is never ending and will endure forever that is why 1 Corinthians 13 ends by saying that when the world has come and gone and all these things have come to pass, only three remain: faith, hope, and love.

But the greatest of these is love. Truly great is the measure of God's love and Jesus, as He was nailed on the cross, spread out His arms to show us that His love for us stretches from the east to the west. Psalm 103:11-12 tells us:

"For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us."

This verse actually gives us an account or a vivid description of when Jesus was nailed at the cross. We know that even though God loves man so much, when sin entered into the world and man fell to sin, God could not tolerate sin because He is holy and just.

But even though man deserved death because of his disobedience to God, our God, out of His pure and overflowing love for man, made a way for us to be made right with Him through Jesus.

In the verse above, we can relate the vertical beam of the cross to the part which says, "For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him," and the horizontal beam to the part which says, "as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us."

These are some of the reasons why we worship God but the best reason why we praise and worship God is because He is worthy to be praised!

The Bible tells us further that God inhabits the praises of His people so whenever we praise from our innermost being as an offering of our heart to His good works in our lives and to His faithfulness then God will meet with us and minister to us personally and give us what we need at that moment in time.

Praise and worship is not just an act that we do but it is a lifestyle that we get into the habit of. Along with prayer and studying or meditating in the Word, praise and worship for God is a way for us to really grow spiritually.

Praise and worship are also powerful in battling evil forces of the world because as we give glory to God, He fills us and gives us the needed strength that we need to march on and live for the glory of His Name.

That is why there are times when you want to praise and worship God as you experience struggles but the enemy will try to discourage you from that because Satan hates it and is annoyed by it.

Satan does not want us to praise and worship God because that is exactly what would aid us in overcoming his attacks.

So then, in those times, do not give in to the temptation of not praising God or being too lazy to do it but all the more praise Him and worship Him despite your situations of being backed up into a corner because God will always make a way out for you and help you overcome.

I have learned to praise and worship God instead of grumbling and complaining about the bad things in life and just focus on what God can do in my life and what He is doing in my life.

I will continue to hold on to His Word and His promises that He will never leave me nor forsake me and that He is my refuge and my strength and my ever-present help in time of need.

I know that God will come to our rescue when we cry out to Him and praise Him instead of being defeated and being a victim of our problems.

I urge you to lift up your hands and praise God in those times when you feel like you are down and out because God will also be there to help us and to renew our strength and He will help us to rise up with wings as eagles (Isaiah 40:31).

I pray God will continue to nourish you and fill your every need and let us never stop praising and worshiping Him! God Bless!