I'm still drinking this coffee that isn't that good.
Oh, when will it end?
How can this be?
Anyways...
I think we sometimes drink the coffee that just isn't that good because we don't realize what we could have.
Our creator, the creator of literally everything, allows us to worship Him. He allows us to speak to Him, to merely think about Him. Every breath is a blessing we don’t deserve, but because we don't see Him for who He really is, we try to live without knowing the true life we could have.
I go through life as each day draws seamlessly into the next, and I forget altogether how impossible it is that we get to talk to God. I forget how God is not fair. He is better than fair; He is gracious despite our sin. I forget the mystery of the gospel: that He loved us so much He died for us, and in response I treat God like I am the boss. I treat Him like He owes me something and like I have done something to deserve His love. Then I treat obedience like something I have the luxury of doing if I so desire, and living the word out in action becomes a chore rather than a joyful response to God and His love and grace. My ‘living for God’ really becomes me just trying to earn His love in whatever way seems best.
I think it's very easy for our thinking to escalate to this. It’s natural. We want to know simply what we have to do (and not do) to get where we want to be.
But that is just not how God works.
Everything we do should be a response to God, to who He is and how much He has loved us.
He is God. He doesn’t need us. He will be glorified regardless of how we treat Him or His commands.
I think a true change will only occur, however, when our perspectives change and we realize truly what it means to worship God. From a true heart of worship stems a natural response of obedience to His ways. When we see and worship God for who He is, and when we accurately see who we are in relation to His perfect power and mercy, our natural response is to live for Him alone because we know that there is no other way to truly live.
I read once that true missional living comes only from a heart of worship. Without this, mission will just be action. It will be going through the motions. Worship is and must be the backbone of everything we do. Without a true and pure heart of worship and knowledge of who God is, we simply cannot live the life He has created us to live.
So to anyone who reads this, I encourage you to stop and think about who God is. Take some time to be alone and just praise God simply for who He is. Don’t pray and ask for this or that, don’t even think about your own life. Praise our beautiful God for who He is and what He has done. I think it will be from that place that true life and heart change will begin to grow.
“O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.” Psalm 8:1
“Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.” Psalm 29:2
“Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!” Psalm 95:6
“Exalt the Lord our God; worship at his footstool! Holy is he!” Psalm 99:5
The glory of who God is draws us to undeniable heart change. Think about who God really is and what He has done, and live in worship to Him in response to His power and love that brings true joy and true life that can be found in no one else.
