God

imaginitive prayers birthed in praise

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After a fantastic weekend of prayer and worship, my heart was in great anticipation of the morning service at church. And sure enough, my spirit was eager to enter into the Lord’s presence and praise him evermore! Here is a fun picture and prayer I received during worship time:

We pour honor onto your feet, our Mighty King. Let our praise be like a fragrant oil poured out upon your feet as we acknowledge that you are King. Let our praise be poured out as honor to you, King, most beautiful King.

My imagination celebrated the picture, seeing our praises rising up and thickening like oil, a fragrant offering in recognition of WHO God is and how worthy He is to receive our praises and seeing that oil be used to anoint His feet, in honor, it was a beautiful experience. (and remembering the passage in Luke 7:36-50 where the woman who lived a sinful life anointed Jesus feet with expensive perfume. This passage is ultimately on forgiveness … when forgiven a debt, who values the forgiveness more? the one who had the biggest debt! and guess what was the theme of the sermon that followed!?! Forgiveness!!! Oh how the Lord was preparing the hearts of the people to receive. If only we could all understand the unpayable debt we owe and how much we have been forgiven, that we might more fully understand the depth of LOVE that has been poured out, that we might in turn offer that same love back to the Lord, as a fragrant offering….aha! see the full circle!!! its so good.)

But, alas, the Lord has a bit more. So, back to the picture, I’m seeing the people in church, offering praises as a fragrant oil and imagining us bowed down, pouring this oil on the feet of the King. And guess what His response is? Here is the second prayer I received:

As we bow low, Father, humbling ourselves to you, we are bowed down before you. Will you bend low to meet with us, bend low, Father, so that we may look into your eyes? Smiling. Honored. We bow low together.

Ah, how sweeter the picture became. I see us, bowed down, honoring the Father, the worthy King, and He just stands up, walks over to me, and gets down on His knees next to me and looks over at me with this cheesy grin on his face. Almost like, “hey, whatcha doing?” hahahaha. He is just a goofy wonderful King. What started as pouring honor out became an exchange of honor. He, out of love and adoration, joined me on the floor and let me look into His eyes and feel His presence. And smiled at me.

Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Hebrews 4.16

disappointment

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Just a note….when listening to a sermon in the gym, be cautious. Because when you are lifting weights next to the super buff guy and you bust out laughing…he will think you are laughing at him and make evil eyes at you. hahaha

Anyway…I was listening to a great sermon from New Spring Church about the life of Job. The pastor was discussing performance….which is a constant struggle for me personally. He said something that ROCKED my world, so I wanted to share.

What is disappointment? Disappointment is to fail to fulfill the expectations or wishes of another person. What have we all heard from a parent or friend at some point?…. “I am so disappointed in you.” That most painful phrase. Because they expected us to behave in a certain way, which we did not, and therefore they were disappointed.

So what about God? Has God ever been disappointed in me? My instinct says YES! I have disappointed him over and over and over and over again. But wait…has God ever been surprised by my failures or my weaknesses? Has he ever been surprised by my sin? my selfishness? my pride? ….NO!!! God has never been surprised and therefore God has never been disappointed! You see, God KNEW all my sin, failure, selfishness, pride, lust, anger, judgement, envy, all my worst junk and he looked into my future and saw everything bad that I would ever do and he chose me anyway. He loved me anyway. Yes, He loves me anyway. 

There is an EPIC song by Misty Edwards called I Knew What I was Getting Into….here is a youtube link, listen and prepare to get rocked: http://youtu.be/GLYB0F4Uzeo

Too many times we build our theology on our experiences and not on the truth and word of God. Don’t let our humanity in the area of disappointment mislead you into thinking that God feels the same way. Just think of Gideon in the Old Testament (found in Judges 6-8). God called him out, a coward among men, to lead a tiny army to defeat their enemy. All along the way, Gideon was weak and fearful and every time he had doubts the Lord affirmed and encouraged Gideon. And He used Gideon to bring great victory for the Israelites. Gideon was willing to listen and obey, despite his imperfections. God is asking the same of us.

God the Father knew you and chose you long ago, and his Spirit has made you holy. As a result, you have obeyed him and have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. May God give you more and more grace and peace. 1 Peter 1.2

http://newspring.cc/watchandlisten/ to see/listen online or you can get their sermons free on iTunes. I HIGHLY recommend the Eve and Adam series about women!!! So good!!