Wednesday's "What's God been teaching me?" #2
Romans 11:33-36
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable His judgments, and His paths beyond tracing out!
"Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been His counselor?"
"Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay him?"
For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.
To Him be the glory forever! Amen.
This week the theme of worshiping God and praising God for who He is has been creeping up all around me. On Sunday at the jam session at the church we spent a whole hour talking about what worship really is. Yesterday, I celebrated my Granddad's 65th birthday and my Grandma said something that really struck a chord in me. She said, "The reason we exist, and everything we do, say, and think is to bring God glory." When I read this passage in my devotions this week I realized that God is speaking to me about worship. Interestingly enough, I will be reading Romans 12:1 in my devotions before the week is through, which is another passage about worship!
When I first read this passage, I thought, "Wow, this is awesome!" But I wondered how I could apply this passage to my life. After all, this passage doesn't talk about how we as Christians should be living or how we shouldn't be living. So I started to meditate on this passage. Here a guy named Paul is writing in his letter to the Romans, when all of a sudden he gets so excited that he just bursts forth into a declaration of worship to God. He uses such powerful phrases to exalt the wisdom, knowledge, mind, and judgments of God. And as I am thinking about this passage, I am going, "Yes! Yes! Yes!" to each line. Those words to God became my own in my moments of reflection.
I started to think. How often do we break out into a chorus of worship to God? Do we sometimes hinder our ability to worship God by living in our own strength? I know I often get on my knees and pray for all things I need like strength, wisdom, guidance, direction, perseverance...but I've never just gone to my knees to worship and thank God for who He is. Or if I have, it's because of an answer to prayer, or the blessing of someone in my life. It's almost as if I've thought that I need a reason to worship God. Maybe, that God needs to show His power...and then I will praise Him for it.
I want to start taking regular time each day to worship God...not just because of what He's done...but because of who He is. I want to fall more in love with my Savior because of how He reveals Himself to me each day as I worship Him. I want to declare the infinite majesty and the incomprehesible wisdom of the Almighty God! Why? Because all things are from Him, all things are through Him, and all things are to Him...I want my my life, my mouth, and my heart to say, "To Him be the glory forever!" Amen.
It reminds me of a song we sing in church that says, "It's all about You, Jesus, and all this for You, for Your glory and Your name. It's not about me, as if You should do things my way. You alone are God, and I surrender to Your will." It's all about Jesus. Let's try and live, speak, and think like we really believe that it's all about Jesus...for His glory.
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable His judgments, and His paths beyond tracing out!
"Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been His counselor?"
"Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay him?"
For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.
To Him be the glory forever! Amen.
This week the theme of worshiping God and praising God for who He is has been creeping up all around me. On Sunday at the jam session at the church we spent a whole hour talking about what worship really is. Yesterday, I celebrated my Granddad's 65th birthday and my Grandma said something that really struck a chord in me. She said, "The reason we exist, and everything we do, say, and think is to bring God glory." When I read this passage in my devotions this week I realized that God is speaking to me about worship. Interestingly enough, I will be reading Romans 12:1 in my devotions before the week is through, which is another passage about worship!
When I first read this passage, I thought, "Wow, this is awesome!" But I wondered how I could apply this passage to my life. After all, this passage doesn't talk about how we as Christians should be living or how we shouldn't be living. So I started to meditate on this passage. Here a guy named Paul is writing in his letter to the Romans, when all of a sudden he gets so excited that he just bursts forth into a declaration of worship to God. He uses such powerful phrases to exalt the wisdom, knowledge, mind, and judgments of God. And as I am thinking about this passage, I am going, "Yes! Yes! Yes!" to each line. Those words to God became my own in my moments of reflection.
I started to think. How often do we break out into a chorus of worship to God? Do we sometimes hinder our ability to worship God by living in our own strength? I know I often get on my knees and pray for all things I need like strength, wisdom, guidance, direction, perseverance...but I've never just gone to my knees to worship and thank God for who He is. Or if I have, it's because of an answer to prayer, or the blessing of someone in my life. It's almost as if I've thought that I need a reason to worship God. Maybe, that God needs to show His power...and then I will praise Him for it.
I want to start taking regular time each day to worship God...not just because of what He's done...but because of who He is. I want to fall more in love with my Savior because of how He reveals Himself to me each day as I worship Him. I want to declare the infinite majesty and the incomprehesible wisdom of the Almighty God! Why? Because all things are from Him, all things are through Him, and all things are to Him...I want my my life, my mouth, and my heart to say, "To Him be the glory forever!" Amen.
It reminds me of a song we sing in church that says, "It's all about You, Jesus, and all this for You, for Your glory and Your name. It's not about me, as if You should do things my way. You alone are God, and I surrender to Your will." It's all about Jesus. Let's try and live, speak, and think like we really believe that it's all about Jesus...for His glory.
posted by Joshua at 8:35 AM
4 Comments:
Amen, amen, amen!
Thanks so much for posting that, Josh! It is really encouraging to see what others are learning, and I know I learn a lot from it as well.
I've definitely been coming up on passages of total surrender, and using this surrender to give God glory, lately in my devotions. Almost everyday, actually. I've been reading about Jacob, and how everytime he has an encounter with God, he'll build a monument, or name the place God-seen or something. He just couldn't help but build something to remember how God was so faithful to Him and I kind of see that as his act of worship. The kind of worship that Paul experienced in this passage is the kind of worship that I'm striving to achieve and one that I believe we should all work towards as we grow closer to God and become more like him.
Did that make sense??
Yes Kiersten, it made sense to me.
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