SPLASHES OF…HOPE! 17th May 2013
Hello there dear Ladies …Here I sit, surrounded by 4 different versions of the Bible, my Concordance and a big, heavy Dictionary! Why?
Because I sincerely hope to splash you with a Holy Spirit enlightened word that washes away any possibility of you thinking / feeling / wondering about what God is “up to” in your life!
I hope you do some digging for yourself, and get yourself splashed by God’s perfect plan and purpose for your life! I just hope to give you a little push today in that direction, to get you looking beyond your present situation and trusting God for your great future, like He promises, okay?
Have you given much thought to the meaning of the word Worship?
I’ve thought a lot about that word, and now use it in my daily prayers since the latter part of last year. There’s obviously much in the Bible to do with worship. Most people think we do so during “Praise and Worship” in a church service, and probably not much after that. Am I right? Is that your “take” on it too? It was for me.
In John 4:19-24 Jesus was in conversation with a Samaritan woman and here we see that Worship isn’t meant to be just in church, but it’s wherever the Spirit of the Lord is …and He’s IN US!! So that means we can worship Him anywhere and anytime! Definitely in our daily ‘conversations’ with God, we WORSHIP Him. Or so we should! He’s worthy of it.
I don’t actually want to talk about myself, but by way of testimony, I need to in this instance to make my point. Some of you know about all the pain I had last year with a “spur” in my heel. . . for the 2nd time, as I also had it in the other heel! The pain of a heel spur is so severe – I kid you not! – that I was quite ready for either using crutches for the rest of my life, never putting my foot on the ground again, or for the doctor to just “chop” my foot off!! After a few years of pain, without Worshiping, Thanking or Praising the Lord, just praying and pleading, begging God, being anointed with oil and hands laid on me in prayer, much crying out to God, and getting close to falling into the pit of depression, God reminded me of something through a beautiful 3 ½ year old little girl.
Some of you know about this, some don’t, but it’s a testimony that bears repeating as …sigh… we do forget so soon!! Her dad told that during prayer times she began to say “thank you for the snow” and so they tried to tell her it was not the Season for snow, etc., in order that she may not become disappointed in God because He didn’t answer her prayer. However, nothing they said deterred her, she just kept on thanking Him! And, Lo and behold! We got snow on our mountains in mid-November!! I absolutely believe God answered the prayers of that little girl whose faith in believing “He can do it”, simply never wavered!! Her perseverance in expecting God to hear and answer sure “paid off”! The faith of a child…what a lesson to us!!
“Ke-ching”! It was a Light Bulb Moment for me!! It took me back to the 80’s when I experienced amazing miracles and answers to my prayers, during a specific Season of our lives. My prayers were not begging, pleading and crying out in desperation to God, but rather telling Him how much I loved Him, and I constantly just worshiped Him, Praised and thanked Him in and for everything in all my prayers.
And so, once again, I “embarked” on a new –old!- way of prayer! I’m so sorry Lord, how could I forget so soon? BUT….I want you to know that this is not Norman Vincent Peele’s – “The Power of Positive Thinking” stuff!! The Bible says in John 4: 23 that God wants us, the “True Worshipers” to “Worship Him in Spirit and in Truth” …I reckon that means from our hearts, not just our lips! He knows our hearts, so He knows when we’re “for real”!
****Being “in love” with Jesus = and He with you! = changes everything in your life, I promise you that!!
Reading the Book of Job Ch. 1, I discover more about Worship. Right at the outset, when Satan was allowed by God to “attack” the “blameless and upright Job who shunned evil and feared God” = Vs. 1, after losing everything, including his children, “he fell to the ground and WORSHIPED” = Vs. 20. WOW!! Could / Would we do that? Usually trials have quite the opposite effect on us, don’t they?!! I could give you a list, but I won’t ‘cos you know it all too well!!
Please do yourself and me a favour and read Job’s “story” will you? It may just splash you with hope as God shows you His truths all the way through the story to its great ending!! I wept through the first 3 chapters, and THEN Vs 6 of Ch. 4 brought to mind, well to my mind anyway, a Splash of hope which I happily share here with you :
**** “Is not your reverence [for God] your confidence, And your integrity of your ways your hope”?
Being “In Christ” gives you confidence and hope in all circumstances. Now is a good time to “bow down and Worship Him!
Ch. 5: vs 7 “Man was born for trouble as surely as sparks fly upwards”– no escaping it then! Here comes an awesome “BUT” : Vs. 18 “..HE bruises, but He binds up; HE wounds, but His hands make whole”. Then along came JESUS, Who promises us His Presence always = Matt. 28:20[b], His Power in all things = 2 Tim. 1:7, and the Victory = 2 Cor. 2:14[a]. Is that not a whole bunch of good reasons deserving of our WORSHIPING GOD, and Praising our Lord Jesus?! You bet it is!!
And what is God’s final Word on the matter? : “WORSHIP GOD”! = Rev. 22:[b]. Start right now and worship your way through a wonderful week-end! God longs for you to worship Him, go on then… and watch for your miracles along the way!
Worshiping with you, and just loving on Jesus!
With love and hugs, Rose xoxoxo