2025-04-25
Good morning, Dear Ones,
Last week, I was commanded by the Holy Spirit to write about reasons to worship God. This week, He tells me to write about the many types of worship and adoration we can demonstrate in building a relationship with Him. Some are obvious, and others not so much. Let me begin with individual worship. MT 6: 6 [Jesus speaking], “But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father Who is unseen. Then, your Father Who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” If we think about it, the Lord Jesus must have been first with the Father to receive His direction. If our parents have done a good job raising us, we will take what is valuable from their directions and apply it in our adult lives. As for Christ’s earthly parents, Joseph and Mary, they had to have been chosen by the Father because they would do a good job with. Consider how He turned out. Joseph taught Jesus to be a carpenter like himself. Mary’s relationship with Jesus was one of love and loyalty, though his adulthood and His death on the cross. If one is not so fortunate to have good and responsible parents, he can still turn to our Father in heaven, Who never abandons us. DT 31: 8, “The Lord Himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”
I find great comfort in knowing how much God wants us to come to Him. Read JN 15: 15-17. He distinguishes believers as His friends, as opposed to just His servants. He shares everything He learned from His Father with us, not holding back. JN 15: 16-17, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in My name the Father will give you. This is My command that you love each other.” No human has as much mercy as our loving God has. Whether we learn to be faithful from our earthly parents or not, our God wants us to believe the truths He has for us, so that we can acquire deep and abiding faith in Him.
If my experience has taught me anything, learning to be obediently faithful to God leads us to making friends wisely. And yes, that’s learned behavior. Our time here on earth is a proving ground as we learn to become more Christ-like. Of course, we make mistakes along the way or hit dead ends. That is how we learn. I’ve been extraordinarily blessed most of my adult life with wonderful friends who share my faith and have led me to attend wonderful churches once I accepted Christ as my personal Savior. Along the way, we will meet and get to know others whose walk with the Lord has been even more difficult than mine has been. The Lord wants us to put our experiences in realistic perspective according to His. Imagine, having to give up one’s physical life for the sake of His beliefs, as Jesus did, or to go through the trials that Paul recounts in 2 COR 11: 22-33! When we consider the mercy our Father shows the many who have been martyred along the way, mentioned in REV 6: 9-11, we can see the enormity they will be see.
Our relationship with God is the most important one to gaining eternal life we can have, but it is by far not the only one. It has huge and far-reaching effects on our relationships with other people as well. The Lord Jesus has told us, in JN 13: 34-35, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you so you must love one another. By this everyone will know you are My disciples, if you love one another.” The faithfulness and mercy our Lord has for us is seen in PS 103: 13, 17-18, “The Lord is like a father to His children, tender and compassionate to those who fear Him...But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who have reverence for Him, and His righteousness with their children’s children—with those who keep His covenant and remember to obey His precepts.”
PRAYER: O Most Holy Father, You have kept a promise You made long ago, in EZK 36: 26-27, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you, I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a new heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit in you and move you to follow My decrees and be careful to keep My laws.” We have been told that, “Faith comes from hearing the message, and message is heard through the word about Christ,” in RO 10: 17. When our lives are not peaceful or filled with good friends, You have shown us that it doesn’t have to be that way. How can we be anything but loyal, grateful, and willing to acknowledge Your actions in giving us Your Spirit? You lift us from the darkness of a life without You into Your marvelous light. Certainly, this doesn’t mean that we won’t have trouble or challenges, but it means You give us Your only Son, Jesus Christ, as a way out [1 COR 10: 13]. We offer You praise and thanksgiving for all You are and all You do, in holy/mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: There is so much that the Holy Spirit wants me to say about what follows receiving Him and ways to worship. I’m sure it will take several of these devotions to express them. Next week, I will begin with receiving the Holy Spirit, and what that might lead us to do to worship. In the meanwhile, let me leave you with the comforting reminders that our God loves us more than we realize and that He gives us a way to deal with the sin in our lives, both inherited and the sins we commit, through His Son, Jesus Christ. Consider this: 1 JN 3: 24, “Whoever keeps His commandments abides in God, and God in Him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit in Whom He has given us.” Praise and thanksgiving be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn, JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2025. All Rights Reserved.
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