blessed

Worship God for the Right Reason

/ Clay D. / Leave a comment

Why do you worship God? That may seem like a simple question, but I believe that how we answer it reveals a lot about our motives and attitudes.

Simply put, we should worship and fear God because of who He is. 

As the our loving Father and the Creator of the universe, we should naturally revere the Lord and give Him the respect He deserves.

However, we may be guilty of worshiping God out of selfish motives.

We should ask ourselves if we honor and worship God because of His awesome, loving nature, or because we hope to get on His good side and perhaps receive more blessings?

I know that I have been guilty of falling into that trap of selfishness. 

Many times, the enemy has planted the thought in my mind that if I just give God His due, then He will cause my life to be better and more fulfilling. 

It’s like I was playing a game with God, thinking that I could somehow buy His favor if I “worshiped” Him more or better. 

This approach sounds like how we might look at our job, trying to win brownie points with the boss by buttering him up and being a “yes” man or woman.

By giving the boss praise and compliments—and getting on their good side—we might score a raise or promotion sooner.

However, God isn’t our boss. He’s our loving Father, and he wants us to love Him and worship Him out of this love as well as a healthy, reverential fear.

This isn’t the fear that he will hurt us, but fear that recognizes He is the Ruler of the universe and that all power is in His hands. 

So, if we’re worshiping Him for any other reason, it’s wrong, and we need to rethink our motives.

God is not some sort of cosmic genie who will give us more stuff and a better life if we pull the right strings. 

True, there are many verses in the Bible that tell us God gives favor to those who love and fear Him:

Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways!

Ps. 126:1

What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him.

1 Cor. 2:9

The Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive.

Deut. 6:24

We can find many more such verses in scripture, but these are enough to give you the overall picture that God rewards and blesses us when we fear, love, and honor Him as He so fittingly deserves.

However, He doesn’t want us to worship Him just out of a motivation for reward. 

God desires a mature, intimate relationship with us, one that is built on love, not just His love for us, but our love for Him.

He gave us free will so that we could freely choose to love, respect, and worship Him. 

That’s the way God made us. He didn’t want robots that simply worshiped Him because that’s the way they were programmed. 

He made human beings in His image, with a free will who will either choose or refuse to worship their Creator out of love and reverence.

So, the next time you’re praying or singing praises to God, think about why you’re doing it. 

Is it because you love Him or because you hope to get something from Him?

Trust God and Be Happy

/ Clay D. / Leave a comment

As if we didn’t already have enough reasons to trust God with our lives, could it also turn out that trusting in God will bring us happiness?

Yes, that is exactly the case. Our heavenly Father wants us to rely completely on him, so much so that He makes it that if we do trust him completely, our lives will be better for it. 

Take a look at Proverbs 16:20b in the ESV (English Standard Version):

Blessed is he who trusts in the Lord.

The word that is translated “blessed” in this verse can also be translated as “happy.” Some translations, including the CSB (Christian Standard Bible) actually render the verse that way. 

God is telling us that we will be happier and more joyful if we’ll just trust in Him and His guidance. Whenever our eyes stray away from God and onto our own way of thinking, we’ll get into trouble. It’s far better to trust in the Lord for everything, plus doing so will bring more joy into our lives.

In Psalm 34:8, we’re told:

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

Once again, the word translated as “blessed” can also mean “happy.” Go ahead and take refuge in the Lord. Make Him your mighty fortress when the challenges of life come your way, because they surely will. 

In fact, we should make it a priority to rejoice in our trials, as we’re commanded in James 1:2-3:

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

Let’s get to the point where we welcome struggles and challenges every day because we know they’ll increase our faith in God.

I, for one, will admit that this area has been a huge problem for me. When something goes wrong, often my first inclination is to blame God, and even get mad at Him for it.

After all, I’m a “good Christian,” right? I shouldn’t have to deal with a broken-down car or plumbing problems at 2 a.m., should I?

God never promises that following Jesus would eliminate all our problems and frustrations. What He does promise is that if we’ll take refuge in Him when faced with challenges, that we can have joy and that our faith will grow.

Furthermore, we can thrive during rough times. Just read Jeremiah 17:7-8:

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream…and is not anxious in the year of drought.

Trusting in God wholeheartedly not only can bring us happiness and joy, it is also a potent antidote for anxiety. And in these trying times of global pandemic, chaos, and political upheaval, it doesn’t get much better than that. 

God wants and longs for what’s best for you. Take Him at His word—begin a new pattern of trusting Him with the entirety of your life, even the smallest of details. 

When you turn everything over to Him, He’ll shoulder the burden (1 Peter 5:7) and you can rest in the joy of the Lord.