WORSHIP

Wake up

What’s the first thing you do when you wake up?

Groan and say “I’m tired”, hit snooze and roll over, or some other sloth like motion? I’ve come to understand that if the first thing I do is worship then I’ve set my day off on the right road. 

Waking up earlier then we would like to on a daily basis has a way of wearing down our resolve unless previous to waking up we’ve already made a decision about how we will show up. For me the decision to wake up with worship on my lips starts with how I end my day.

I’m not as consistent as I would like to be in fact if no one but me ever reads this I will have done enough just telling myself this truth again in this form. 

I love this one fantastic song called awaken the dawn by Delirious. The chorus goes

“We sing the songs that awaken the dawn God of creation we praise you. You are the Lord, the savior of all. God of creation, we praise you.”

As a father of 4 beautiful children how I worship in the beginning of my day especially on days when I’m home when they wake up makes a huge difference in how everyone’s day begins. 

A practical way to make this happen is to go to bed with worship on your mind is to play some music before going to sleep or read your Bible. Personally I’ve found that listening to my Bibles audio option on a timer is a great way to fall asleep. 

Choose to wake up with worship on your lips by whatever means possible and you will make your day that much better and a day started well had a 100% chance of continuing well. 

Open up

Days just start better when you wake up with worship on your lips but it’s empowered by what you open up first. 

Facebook, Email, The Bible, Instagram. 

(Why do you think they call it your feed?)

All these things are telling me something about life but only one is giving me life, all these things are feeding me telling me who I am and how to be the worshiper only one is helping me be the worshiper I wanna be moving forward. 

Worship was best decribed to me as giving worth to something. The thing that I give the most worth to aka my time via attention is the thing I worship most. What am I opening myself up to most not just in the beginning of the day but as I move forward into it. 

What am I worshiping? 

This whole opening up really moves on as we enter new phases of the day. When I was single I would read the Bible in the morning while I ate my breakfast I was pretty committed to this time because it was so simple. I wasn’t going anywhere. I was just going to be sitting there anyway, so building into my life that special time set aside for opening up God's word every morning laid a foundation of worship for me as I gave my time to this simple action of opening my Bible. 

I encourage you to find a consistent time everyday to open up God's word and get it from your hands into your heart because what’s in your heart is what’s on your lips if it’s worship on your lips you want worship must be in your heart and the word must be in your hands. 

Reaching out 

Worship isn’t a stationary activity, opening up your Bible while you sip your coffee or eat your breakfast is great, it’s important to create that habit but there must be a reaching out both physical and spiritual. 

There are times when I’m on my way somewhere when I’m listening to a song that I just have to reach up my hands in worship. The commute to work can be one of those times of reaching out I believe it’s a great time as you drive down the road to decide what direction your day will go. 

If you have ever been around kids there inevitably comes a time when they will reach out to a parent or other adult looking to be held it’s a sign of trust and surrender and it’s that heart that Jesus was talking about when he told us that we needed to become like little children. As you drive down the literal road choose to worship by reaching out. 

I encourage you to put worship at the center of your day by reaching out in surrender, knowing that as you go forward you won’t have all the answers but trusting that the one who is worthy of all worship is waiting to hold you and lift you up to blessing and victory in the day ahead. 

Speak it

They say confession is good for the soul and I would agree that a confession of who you are and who Jesus is right there in your time with him is good for your soul. It's a great expression of worship and it can happen anywhere. 

Speaking worship, coming into alignment with the Holy Spirit about who you are and who God is to me is a very intimate thing but it’s not always needing to be private. I have enjoyed writing on my mirror in the past, confessions of what I believe and what I feel God is speaking to me. 

My billboard of life is my phone so I’ve taken to making my Lock Screen a statement of worship. As of right now it has a picture of a cross with the words “I am who He says I am” below it. 

I think worship is something that we must make mobile, no pun intended. 

Speaking it can also include singing. 

When was the last time you sang your worship to God. Singing a song is great and I believe it’s worship but is it yours or is it someone else’s worship that you're speaking? 

I encourage you to speak your personal worship to God. I wrote a psalm once it may not have been as good as David’s but it was my heart poured out spoken to God. 

Speak your worship to your Heavenly Father today. In an honest prayer, a heartfelt song, a confession of faith, or even reading statements of who God says you are as found in the Bible. 

There are many ways to speak your worship, choose one, choose a few but just do something everyday. 

Hear it

We have been given two ears and one mouth. Someone said it’s because God wanted us to listen twice as much as we talk.

To worship we must hear, not just anything but the voice of our shepherd. Two ears can mean divided attention as we listen to the voice of the Shepherd and the voice distraction. Whoever or whatever that may be. 

This is where the start of the day leads to victory when the day is in full gear and the voices are coming in fast and loud the reason to have awoken with worship to have opened up the day in his word and to have reached out to him and spoken your worship to him in your quiet time is to hear him when the voices that surround you seem louder then his. 

Worship is about hearing not just when we’re surrounded by other believers and the music is loud but when the temptation to let his still small voice be drown out comes. Worship is an act of obedience to the Word of God that is hidden in your heart when your ears are filled with the sounds of calamity and chaos. 

When the voice of God seems distant and small reach into your heart to the things that you have hidden there then worship from a place of strength knowing that the one who resides in your heart will guide you. Worship in spirit and in truth today my friend. 

Intercession

Worship is warfare. There is a battle for your thoughts and it started the moment you woke up that’s why you opened up his word and reached out, spoke your worship and listened to his still small voice but worship is also something we are invited into by Jesus. 

Worship is intercession because it’s Jesus singing over us. He’s the one who is worshiping God on our behalf when we just can. It’s worship as the Holy Spirit speaks the language of heaven through our mouth and worship pours out on our behalf from a source that we cannot control or contain. 

Intercession is worship as we model this act of singing over others when we walk through the doors of our workplace and bless those we meet maybe it’s a customer or a co worker perhaps you are the first there and you can pray over each office in the power of the spirit bringing your worship to heaven and in this way lift the needs of those we know to heaven as our praise rises like incense to heaven. 

As you encounter hurting people even if they have a relationship with Jesus, be an intercessor for them and worship today. That delivery driver that irritating co worker the boss. Bring their names before the throne as your worship and intercede on their behalf as Jesus taught us to do.  

The peace of Jesus goes where you walk. 

Presence

Ultimately worship comes from being in the presents of God. That starts when we wake and hopefully continues till we encounter others and bring our worship to the throne room for us and them. 

I heard a story about Andrew Murray a 19th Century pastor and evangelist who was seen stopped on the road for a few moments by someone who know his when asked about it later he said he stopped because he had lost his awareness of Gods presents and wanted to get it back. True or not that story has stuck with me for over 20 years. 

I want to live in the awareness of Gods presents. We are always in his presents because God is omnipresent, a fancy way to say God is everywhere all the time. But being aware of it will help me to have worship on my lips as I wake and walk along through the day. It will cause me to open my eyes and my heart and pour his word into them. The awareness of his presence will make reaching out natural and desired and speaking my worship the default setting and the desire of my heart. 

Living in the awareness of his presents will open my ears to him not just as a voice in the crowd but as the background soundtrack to my life and that will lead me to bring my worship into my interactions with others and my praise to heaven as a sweet smelling incense. 

I have decided to follow Jesus and he is seated in the presence of God so that is where I must go and that is where I must say not to the dismissal of the world around me but to be a blessing to the world around me. 

Friends we have been invited not into a religion where we perform in hopes of appeasing a deity but we have been invited in to relationship and the pathway is worship. Jesus has already opened all the doors we just need to walk through them. 

Today if you didn’t wake up with worship on your lips so it now and walk the road to his presents. 

I love you friend and Jesus loves you.