Completely to You

So what can I say? 
What can I do? 
But offer this heart O God 
Completely to You

This is a beautiful song by Hillsong United entitled The Stand.  As I was getting ready for church yesterday morning I was listening to Air1 when this song came on.  The snippet above is what hit me.  It captured my life at that very moment and God spoke through it.

After an intense weekend full of God-thoughts, worship services, and the emotions of life shared with friends, I realize just how easy it is to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of everyday life and forget about the one thing that really matters.

As humans, we worship by design.  What we worship is specific to each individual.  The receiver of our worship can range anywhere from sports to boyfriends, music to backpacks, and Star Wars to baking.  None of these things are bad in and of themselves, however the Bible says anything we worship more than God is an idol, and idolatry is a sin.  (Luckily we already knew we were sinners and God has already taken care of that for those who ask!)

For biblical reference:

• Exodus 20:3-4 “You shall have no other gods before me.  You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneat or in the waters below.”
• Matthew 4:10 “Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.”
• Matthew 22:37-38 “Jesus replied, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the first and the greatest commandment.”

Something I hadn’t thought much about until recently, is that even ministry can be an idol if our motives are wrong.  An example of this would be a youth pastor obsessing over how many kids are coming, what they are going to eat, how to get them to listen to the gospel, etc. rather than focusing on God, what he wants for the children, and asking Him to use the event to glorify himself. 

This isn’t cold hard fact, just an opinion, but I think girls are more vulnerable to making people our idols, whereas men are more vulnerable to making things their idols. 

For most women, idolatry easily creeps in to our relationships because of the Genesis 3:16 curse.  Our desire is for relationships, and more specifically our husband.  How many girls do you know that check their phone every 5 seconds waiting for that guy to text them?  Or what about the women who are so starved for love (like many of us) that they reach out for whatever male figure they can cling to.

We all have idols in our hearts.  This week I was convicted about chasing God’s plan more than God himself.  In high school one of my big idols was popularity and acceptance from other people.  But what’s your idol?  What are you not letting God control in your life?  Is there something you deem as more important than the creator of the universe?  Something coming in between you and your walk with God?  Take some time to examine your heart today and lay down any idols you might have.  Let God be God. J he does have it figured out ya know!

For a great bible study on idols I recommend: No Other Gods by Kelly Minter

Music: Worship

The next step up from Christian music is my favorite, Worship music! J

The difference between worship music and Christian music is that worship music focuses solely on giving God praise and glory. Christian music is usually about God and good things, positive attitudes, etc, but not always about giving God the entire glory.

To me worship music is very effective simply because it’s what we were born to do. We

were made to worship. Everyone is made to worship, and to worship God. However we sometimes get lost in what we are supposed to worship. Worship can come in many different forms: sex, acceptance, drugs, alcohol, friends, school, etc. This often happens in relationships, when we as girls tend to worship the guy we’re dating (this can be shown by texting him all day long, thinking about him incessantly, and focusing our heart and emotions on him.) This is an act of worship, however it’s not the pure worship God designed us to do. The problem with worshipping guys, our boyfriends, or even our husbands, is that they will let us down. They're only human, not perfect like God. Also, God commands us to put him first and others second. Matthew 22:37-39, Exodus 20:3

Worshipping God includes more than just singing hymns once a week in church. Ephesians 5:19 says “sing and make music from your heart to the Lord.” MAKE MUSIC FROM YOUR HEART. SING from your HEART!! When you sing in church you should feel every lyric resounding in your heart. Worship connects us to God. It shows him that we appreciate him and love him. Going beyond that, worship is an act of living. How we live is worship. We have the choice to either worship God with our lives or to worship something else. The choice is yours.

What are you worshiping? How are you worshiping?

Therefore, when we listen to worship music outside of church, we are showing complete love and devotion for our God. He gave his all for us, so why wouldn’t we want to give a little extra love to him? He deserves it after what he did for us, and for what he is doing presently in us.

Here are a few of my favorite worship bands and songs:

http://www.davidcrowderband.com/ David Crowder “How He Loves Us”

INSERT

The Cody Dunbar Band http://codydunbar.com/

“The Stand” Hillsong United

“Here am I” Matt Papa

For more on worship: http://jollyblogger.typepad.com/jollyblogger/2006/02/man_was_made_fo.html

For more worship music: http://www.worshiptogether.com/