I remember when I went to
I will be the first to admit that at times my level of praise and worship is not where it should be. There are times when I get consumed with life and things that I am dealing with and I don’t give God what He deserves. King David and the Ethiopians are such great examples for us though. David was on the run from Saul, he feared for his own life, but he worshipped God with all that was in him. The Ethiopians lack so much materially: They don’t always know when their next meal will be. Some don’t posses transportation and have to walk hours to get to church. Others are so poor that they wear the same thing daily. Yet they know God. They worship Him, they praise Him, and they offer Him their everything.
How much more should we? None of us wonders where our next meal will come from. None of us sleeps on dirt floors. None of us has to walk hours to get to church. None of us has only one outfit in our closet. None of us walks barefoot because we can’t afford shoes. The poorest person in
Today in prayer I told God I just wanted to worship Him, I just wanted to praise Him and do nothing else. As I already mentioned, there have been times this year when I was so overwhelmed with being unhappy in the PhD program that my prayers were consumed with ‘God I don’t know what I am doing, but I know I don’t want to do this.’ And while we do need to give God our burdens, today in prayer I told God that if all I do when I pray is worship and praise Him and never get around to presenting my needs, that is what I want to do. From here on out, I told God I want to be like the Ethiopians. Like the Ethiopians, we should always come to God first and foremost with our praise and worship. There are times though when we rush through our praise and worship so that we can present our needs. We spend five minutes praising God and 45 presenting our needs. (I am not talking about intercession, because I think it is different when we spend time praying for others, I am talking about when we spend the majority of the time praying for our own circumstances). It should not be like that. Again I am not saying that we should not present our needs to God. I think He is the first who we should give our needs to. But I think we should be like the Ethiopians whose praise and worship is so genuine and so sincere. And if we don’t get around to presenting our needs because we are consumed with worship, that that is okay.
Earlier this week I was reading the Psalms and a verse struck me. In Psalms 73, David is overwhelmed it seems, by circumstances that surround him. Yet in verse 17 he says, ‘Until I went into the sanctuary of God, then I understood.” In other words, David was letting what he was going through overwhelm his thoughts, and it was not until he began to praise and worship God that his perspective changed. The situation did not change; his enemies were still plotting against him, but his perspective changed. I truly believe that when we come to God first and foremost with our worship and praise our circumstances, they might not change, but our perspective does. You still might not have a job, your loved one might still not be serving God the way they should, that sickness might still be there, etc., but your perspective on who God is changes. When we come to God with genuine worship and praise, we realize how big and great of a God it is that we serve, and our understanding increases.A few weeks ago I got to the point where I was overwhelmed. I knew in my heart, there was absolutely no way I could continue in the PhD program. I knew it was not what I wanted and that I would be miserable if I had to take one more step in the program. I will admit, rather than coming to God with worship and praise, I came to God telling Him that I could not do it, and letting Him know how overwhelmed I was. I went to sleep one night having no peace about the situation. The next morning when I went to prayer though, my mentality changed. I told God I was not going to spend my time presenting my need, but I was going to spend time worshipping Him. Whether He gave me direction or not, He is still God and He still deserves worship and praise. And so that morning, I just praised and worshipped God. Nothing else. I will say I left wtih my perspective changed. I left prayer with peace. I left prayer with understanding. My situation had become bigger than God. In other words, I had become overwhelmed with trying to figure out what I was going to do academically. But by me just worshipping and praising God, and telling God that I was not going to worry about my situation, but I just was going to consume myself with God’s presence, my situation shrunk and my understanding of God increased.
When we come before God consumed with worship and praise, not worrying about our situation or our circumstance, God meets us. Our life needs to be consumed with worship and praise given to God. We need to stop looking at our circumstances and our situation and start looking at God and who God is. I challenge you for the rest of July to not pray about your circumstance; if you are looking for a job, don’t mention it in prayer, if you a loved one is not serving God; don’t mention it in prayer, if you don’t know what you are doing in your life; don’t mention in prayer, if you are looking for a place to live; don’t mention it in prayer, whatever the situation concerning your life is don’t mention it in prayer. I am not telling you to ignore the situation, I am not telling you to deny that the need is there, but I am saying rather than presenting to God a list of your personal needs, spend the time worshipping and praising God. I truly believe if you do this your perspective will change. God will grow bigger and your situation will grow smaller.
Let us be like the Ethiopians who recognize that an intimate relationship with God should be our top priority. Let us spend time worshipping God and praising Him and giving Him thanksgiving and adoration. Let us not look at our circumstance, but look at God.