Tag: worship

Created to Worship

Published on by Sandra Nakitto2 Comments

Do you know God commands our worship? We were created for a purpose and that is to bring glory to the one who made us. Our duty is to worship the creator not the creation.

Isaiah 43:7 

Everyone who is called by my name, whom I have created for my glory; I have formed him, yes, I have made him. NKJV 

Man was created for God’s glory,  even as we all have different purposes of accomplishing here on earth, the ultimate goal is to bring glory to God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  The calling on our lives and the good gifts/ talents God has given to us are all for His glory not to us but to Him. This is why we shouldn’t grow proud as pride steals God’s glory,  making a man think that it is by own strength and wisdom that makes them prosper.  When we worship God we fulfill the main purposes why we were created.  Worship is an expression of reverence and admiration for God. Every human being deserves to worship God.  When God receives our worship, He receives all the glory. Worship acknowledges Who truly God is, His magnificence and great beauty of His nature.  Worship will reveal the sovereignty of God and guarantees that Only God is worthy and deserves our worship.  We should worship God who formed us, created us in His image, we are the work of His hands. Everything we see was made by Him, He is the creator of heaven and earth! the source of life and all that we are;  you see, all creation shows the glory of God, its a privilege to worship Him, we ought to worship Him!

Matthew 4:10

Then Jesus said to Him, Away with you, Satan! For it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve. 

Jesus even confirmed it that we are to only worship God period, not anything else! not the devil, nor the sun, the moon, images, mankind whether rich or famous. But all to worship and serve the one true living God.  Even as the devil tempted Jesus that he will give Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory if He worshiped him., What about us? The devil will tempt us to in any way so that we fail to worship God. He can entice us to many beautiful or luxurious things which can draw our hearts away from God, how? when we begin to love them so much and adore them rather than God; they occupy the place of God in our hearts they become idolatry. It can be anything like a car, a house, family, job, friends etc. Whatever we put our whole heart on takes our attention and if it is not God or the things of God, we worship it!.  The solution is to worship God whether we have plenty or not if it is wealth, a perfect job, we always have to remember that it is God who gives us the power to make wealth Deuteronomy 8:18.  If it is good health or not , we should remember that It is God who bringeth health and healing, Jeremiah 33:6 in all situations whether good or bad we are to worship God.

Expressions of worship

There are many ways of expressing our worship to God;  David is a good example to follow, he worshiped God inside and out with all his heart, strength and life.  We can worship God by; Singing and shouting: Psalm 81:1-2 says Sing for joy to God our strength; Shout joyfully to the God of Jacob. Raise a song, strike the timbrel, The sweet sounding lyre with the harp. Like David, we worship when we sing songs to GOD in spirit and in truth. For example when we sing those beautiful worship songs in church, in our homes and regularly, even creating our own songs to GOD.  

Dancing: 2 Samuel 6:14 And David was dancing before the LORD with all his might, and David was wearing a linen ephod. David danced with all his might,  he forsook all the glories of a king, or who was watching and worshiped God with everything in him through dancing. He didn’t consider himself highly but gave the praise back to God.

Speaking:; Psalm 71:8 My mouth is filled with your praise, declaring your splendor all day long. We worship through Speaking of who God is, His greatness, His power, His works etc and telling of His wonders. 

Bowing down and standing: Psalm 95:6 Come, let us worship and bow down, Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.  Psalm 33:8 Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.  We worship through kneeling and standing with sincerity of our hearts.

clapping our hands and lifting up our hands: Psalm 134:2 Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the Lord!  Psalm 47:1 Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy!.  Worship is individual. God is the only audience of our worship not the members of the church or the choir leaders.  They only lead and guide us into worship.

Other ways we worship God is through; 

Giving: Proverbs 3:9 Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops. When we give our offerings,  tithe or give a seed., we honor and acknowledge God who is the source of everything. And if we honor Him, He honors us back and blesses us according to His riches in glory.  

Walking in holiness and righteousness: Romans 12:1 I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Worship is not just about singing but a lifestyle. Our whole lives including the heart, the body/flesh, the tongue, the mind must worship God. This means we have to discipline this body by controlling it to submit to God. We should honor God with our bodies, not to fulfill the desires of the flesh but to run away from every form of sin, and pursue holiness and righteousness.

Serving God: 1 Samuel 12: 24 Only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you. Whatever work/ task we doing for the Lord is worship, so we worship Him with our lives. Serving is to sacrifice, to be obedient, and to acknowledge God,  His existence, omnipotence, and sovereignty etc.

Giving God all the glory in everything we do. 1 Corinthians 10:31 says  So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.  This regards our day to day living, our walk with God, our speech, character, etc whatever we do is for the glory of God and God will not allow anyone to share His glory.

I pray that God helps us and graces us to worship Him, never to grow weary and tired but continuing in strength and might to worship Him every day of our lives in spirit and in truth. Amen

God bless you all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Longing for God

Published on by Sandra NakittoLeave a comment

Are you longing for God? Maybe you asking where’s God?, maybe you long to return back to Him or maybe you long for Him to fill you. How can God meet these longings in our hearts?

Longing to come out of the wilderness

Psalm 63:1

 O God, You are my God, Early will I seek you; My soul thirsts for you; My flesh longs for you in a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water. 2 So I have looked for you in the sanctuary, To see you power and glory.

A wilderness can be where we feel alone, where we feel rejected, Where you find no joy and peace.  Where you are helpless and you need a saviour, Where you realise that only Him can redeem and deliver, Where you want to be fulfilled. Maybe like David, Maybe your in the wilderness and you longing for God,  Maybe you crying out to Him and there’s no answer? David declared that God was His God,  First we have to know or realise how we see God. Ask yourself first Who is God to You? Is He your God, is He your refuge, do you run to Him for safety and not to people or things etc. Is He your Shield? Do you run to Him for protection, Is He your provider, are you leaning on Him to supply your needs, Is He your King? Do you honour Him above all else?  Do you seek Him first, before anything else, do you pray to Him, Do you give Him your time, do you acknowledge His presence? When we long for God to rescue us, hear us, deliver us and save us from problems circumstances and whatever we going through, we must first thirst for Him. For instance, when we are thirsty we want water, we look for it and get it and it clears away out thirstiness. Even so with God we have to long for Him to come and dwell in our hearts, we have to yearn and seek Him, not just to answer us but for us to know Him, see Him, feel Him and hear from Him through His word, prayer, sacrifice and obedience here we encounter God, receiving breakthroughs and coming out of the wilderness.

Longing to come back to God

Psalm 42:4

When I remember these things , I pour out my soul within me, for I used to go with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a mulitiude that kept a pilgrim feast. NKJV

Longing for God can be when we backslide, when we used to have intimacy with God, God was closer than anyone, we were constantly in God’s presence, spending hours of time with Him, praising and worshipping Him, time of prayer was never missed! studying His word was like crazy, when those times was all about God and it was just amazing! Where did all that go? Why is it not the way it was? Why don’t we feel close to God like before?These seasons happen to everyone, this is a dry season, a wilderness too. In this period we remember the moments we had with and the days when were on fire for God. When this happens it is always good to realise it and do something. David said my flesh longs for you in a dry and thirst land. The longness for God to bring us back is that we got to be there, this is the time where we cry out and pour our hearts to God to revive us again. God can restore us back to that place but we have to work for it. The devil gradually tempts us with many things that can easily draw us away from God and godliness. But when this happens we must renew our minds and realise where we’ve fallen, get up and run back to God. God is merciful always hears and helps us to rise up again when we fall.

Longing for God to satisfy 

John 4:14

But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him, will never be thirsty, But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. 

Another way is also when we long to satisfied. Even when we have everything, name it; the perfect job, the money, Family, friends, degree etc when life is going well but there’s no peace, we are not happy, even when things seem to be fine, It is just not right, we are not full, we are longing to be satisfied but what we have cannot satisfy us. The answer to this is Jesus! All you and I need is Jesus to satisfy, only God can satisfy the longings in our hearts. The one who made it can fulfill our desires and it’s only God. These material things we run too, to be fulfilled, to find joy and peace cannot fill us, they cannot replace God who is the maker of them, that’s why we still don’t have peace or we always want more and more, because we don’t have Jesus, if we did we would be at peace with what we have and have joy in them. What we desire and the peace we long for only Him can give to us. So seeking God constantly, and placing Him first and above everything making Him the center is where the peace, happiness and needs come from not on material things that we want.

I pray that God meets each longings in our hearts and as you and I have desired Him, He will show Himself to us,  He loves us so much that He will never leave us. Remember It’s always us who start to leave. So we must be alert and know His our strength and the lifter of our head. He will sustain us all the way as long as we let Him.

God Bless you.

True Worship

Published on by Sandra NakittoLeave a comment

 

First, let us look at what the bible says about worship.

John 4;21-24 (NKJV)

Jesus said to her, “Woman believe Me the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. 22 “You worship what you do not know, we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. 23 “But the hour is coming and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

What is worship? 

Jesus told the woman that “You worship what you do not know, but we know what we worship. True worship comes from Knowing God.  We must know the God we worship. The only way our worship will be effective will determine the way we know, see and understand God. Worship is acknowledging God as the source of everything we have.  Worship itself is not easy as we think no, it is not!, and we all struggle to worship God (including myself), yet it is very simple to worship God.  Some of us are being classified in the category where we worship what we do not know. We may think that we are worshipping God but we really are not! I’m saying this because our manner of worship to God does not show that we know Him. For instance, imagine if God was visible and you could see Him. What would you do?  I’m sure we would all dread and tremble whenever we saw Him. You wouldn’t dare even touch your phone while in  church,  in fact you’d switch if off, you wouldn’t stand up, and if it is to give you’d want to give the best, you would even forget the person next to you because your full attention would be on Him. you would honour His presence and show much respect as possible.

But in reality this is not happening, this makes you think that because we cannot see God, we forget that He is watching us, we fail to acknowledge Him because of our fleshly desires. Such as being careless for lateness in church, showing up anytime or even end up not showing up, forced to raise our hands during worship, doing it because of other people but not in truth, some of us pull out our phones and scroll on social media or play games in the middle of the sermon, showing no reverence for God’s word. We give our time and value for material things than we do for God’s things. We put our jobs, children, husbands, wives, parents, and so on first before God and then God is the last. Some of us get so busy and busy that we have failed to create a day or time for God. The truth is we just don’t care, our love for God grew cold.  This kind of worship shows we really don’t know God and that we are worshipping something we don’t know which is why I say it again It is hard to worship God, we all struggle to worship God and it is one of the greatest weapons the enemy fights most, but as long as we know and acknowledge God, our worship can become simple and pleasing to God.

What can I do so that God is pleased and receives my worship?

“But the hour is coming and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

God yearns for true worship. He is looking for true worshippers, not worshippers because we all can worship God but not in true worship to Him. Jesus said the true worshippers are those who worship God in spirit and in truth.  God is spirit and they that worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. Now first, we have to know that God is spirit, we cannot worship God in flesh or with our flesh, what do I mean?  Romans 8:5 says for those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.  The flesh hinders us to worship God in a manner that pleases Him, when we are being minded by our flesh, we are concerned of the things of the flesh, how to satisfy this body and give it what it wants like in church, we are so concerned about clothes and what should I wear, we have made it a competition because we want to dress perfectly well like so and so as if our value comes from just clothes that can wither away anytime.  Money, money has become a main issue, don’t get me wrong money is good and we need it, but the excess love of it is totally not right, we work 24/7 all week, no day or time for God, even if we go to church on Sunday we don’t give 100% focus on God, we will get distracted by anything like our phones, children, friends etc. During worship, our minds may not be on God but on that situation, that person, that, dress, that promotion, that thing, name it… which describes our failure to worship God because our hearts are far far away from Him. (We are in the flesh). Since God is Spirit, He wants us to worship and live in the Spirit and living in the Spirit is totally opposite to the flesh. It’s when we crucify the flesh and make it submit to God! God wants our hearts totally focussed, concentrated on Him. God wants all of You! To worship Him, He wants us to worship Him with everything we have, not just part of us, He wants your lifestyle to be surrendered to Him.  God wants your whole mind, body, heart and everything to be only on Him, He wants to be the centre! Yes! He hears your words, how you speak well of Him, but if your heart is far from Him those are just empty words to Him and do you think He is pleased with that?  Worshipping God in truth doesn’t involve emotions or feelings. Worshipping God based on our emotions and feelings is being mainly concerned at the external things, however our worship and everything we do is meant to be in truth with our attention  fixed on God and not with what’s going on around us.

Psalm 99: 8-9

You answered them, O Lord our God; You were to them God-Who-Forgives, though you took vengeance on their deeds. 9 Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at His holy hill; for the Lord our God is holy. (NKJV)

We can only know God through Studying His word, True worship is for and only about God, Seeing Him as He really is! Singing our hearts out to Him not just mere singing, acknowledging Him and what He has done for us, emptying ourselves so He can fill us. Realising that only God has sustained you, provided, protected and has made you become who you are today.  This is called true worship!

I pray that God helps us to worship Him in truth and in spirit, His grace is sufficient. May He grace you and me to become true worshipers whom He is looking for today.

God Bless You.