ICS Daily Devotions
The Power of Worship
1 Cor 14:15 (NKJV) What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding.
With God in our lives, we have an identity and a purpose – which is to worship Him in spirit and in truth as a child of God.
God is Spirit. When God created man, His primary purpose was so that man would worship Him. We are a new creation in Christ. We now have a direct link as worshipers to God from spirit to Spirit. Fall in love with Him. Worship Him. The more we worship Him, the more intimately we will know Him. If we really know the Lord then there is no room for indifference. If you are still tainted by indifference, you are living too close to the world. You are too involved in the things of life. The closer you live to him, the more you will want to hear His voice. When we worship, we pour out our hearts to Him. Your worship to the Lord is distinctly you, it is uniquely “You”. It touches the heart of God. He longs to hear your words of love, the expression of your heart, the groaning of your spirit.
We must realize that there is a river within us if we have the Holy Spirit. Jesus says, “rivers of living water will flow from within them” (John 7:38 NIV). We need to let the river flow out of us through songs of worship and adoration in the Spirit. There is no life in stagnant water, therefore living water has to be a flowing river. And it will flow like a river when we start yielding to the Holy Spirit.
Hebrews 4:15-16 (NKJV) For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Praise and worship is a form of prayer – this is how we enter into God’s throne of grace. When praise and worship become a part of our lifestyle, we will enter into the presence of God faster and we no longer settle for a mediocre presence. Some people may wonder why they can’t feel the presence of God on Sundays; it may be that they haven’t spent enough time in His presence throughout the week. However, if we approach His throne daily, we can enter His presence with boldness because we know that we are hidden in Christ. At this moment with God, we will find grace and mercy to help us especially in time of need. Our boldness is not in ourselves regarding what we have done or the position that we hold in life but who we are in Christ.
Jesus is our High Priest who knows what we are going through in life because He has walked the path on earth and had suffered tremendously on earth. Jesus was persecuted. He was falsely accused, beaten, bruised, and whipped. He was rejected and despised by men. He was betrayed by His own disciples. He was abandoned by his disciples in the most challenging moment of His life. Jesus is able to empathize with us in everything including betrayal, sicknesses, pain, diseases, poverty, grief, rejection, abandonment, etc. He understands stress very well because He was stressed to the point of shedding blood through perspiration.
Psa 95:6 Come, let us bow down and worship him; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!
Worship is an attitude of the heart in which the heart bows down before God. At this time, we worship God because we love Him and express our love to Him. We are no longer conscious of our surroundings and the worldly things that plaque our mind. The thoughts in our mind are centered on the Lord, not our requests or petitions. Make sure that you bring the sacrifice of praise to God regularly in order to strengthen your spiritual life!
Sermon: Stuck Between the Rock and a Hard Place
