For thought and meditation

[rl69]

Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.—Psalm 118:1 (http://harvest.us3.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=4f108f827aed8d503b5fca9fa&id=d75ab88401&e=3dd732485b)Worship can turn the most miserable circumstances into a wonderful time. In the book of Acts we read of Paul and Silas, who were beaten and thrown into a cold, dark, stinking dungeon for preaching the gospel. But at midnight (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/x-apple-data-detectors://4) Paul and Silas began singing praises to God. They worshiped the Lord. As they sang, an earthquake came, and the entire prison fell apart. (Talk about bringing the house down.)

It’s wonderful when you can be lifted up through worship. I’m not talking about mind over matter; I’m talking about faith over circumstances. I’m not talking about positive thinking; I’m talking about honoring God, who is still on the throne no matter what you’re going through.

God may deliver you immediately from your situation as He did with Paul and Silas. Or He may not. Sometimes when you worship the Lord, your problems don’t go away, but they don’t seem as significant. It’s not because your problems have disappeared. It’s because you have reevaluated things. As you worship the Lord and think about His glory, His power, His splendor, and His love, then you see Him in perspective.

The word worship comes from an old English word that means “worthship.” We should worship God because He is worthy. No matter what we’re going through, no matter what our circumstances may be, God merits our worship. The Bible says, “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever” (Psalm 118:1). We worship God in spite of our circumstances, in spite of what we’re going through, because God merits and deserves our worship. And He is always worthy of our worship.

God made us to worship Him. God made us to bring Him pleasure. And God is pleased when we worship Him with a proper heart.

[Boaz]

Thank you rl69 for todays message . It reaffirms . It started me off on the right foot this morning .

[USMC87]

what a wonderful truth, Thank you for taking time to post.

[Blackwater]

What a great lesson for today, particularly the comment that, "It’s not because your problems have disappeared. It’s because you have reevaluated things." Too often, far too many of us tend to look at our Lord as a kind of "candy store" where we can go and ask Him to make things to our liking. But he often doesn't or won't heal our circumstances. Why? I've come to conclude that He lets us bear burdens and face unpleasant situations so we'll simply learn. Absent any unpleasant surroundings or circumstances, we tend to "bask in the sun" and simply soak up the pleasures. But when our mind focuses on the easy pleasures of this life, we are not and cannot be serving God. He allows us certain times and moments to "soak up the sun," but if He let us have too much of that, we'd wind up being even more willful and more focused on what WE want than we already ARE! So .... I thank God for the challenges He's put in my path for me to deal with. They have steeled me and shaped and molded me, and edified me in a way that nothing else really could ever have accomplished.

I think He gives us trials so that we can grow stronger, problems so we can become wiser in dealing with them, and disabilities so we can appreciate what we have left so very much more than we ever would have come to, had we not had our disabilities. Truly, He knows MUCH better than we do what we NEED. We mostly know what we WANT, and what we want, is not always what's truly best for us, in the end. What a wonderful Lord we serve, and who watches over us, and teaches us so many wondrous things in so many wondrous ways!