WORSHIP?

As I pulled into the yard this evening, the sun was shining through the sugar maple whose leafs are still full, but are the most vivid yellow color.  I could only imagine how ALL of CREATION WORSHIPS the creator.  As the leaves danced in the breeze and the sun cast a glow on them, I thought of a CREATOR who spoke the Sun into existence and told the trees when to go dormant for the winter.  A God who created a myriad of beautiful colors and things that we take for granted; however they worship the creator.  How do they worship?  In Psa 66:4 All the earth shall worship thee, and shall sing unto thee; they shall sing to thy name. The earth obeys the voice of the Father. Obedience is just one of many facets of worship as we have been learning in Bible Study.  

I came up the road home today and pulled into the yard to a dazzling display of God’s creation.

It would seem that God is speaking to my heart about MY worship.  Am I like Goldilocks in the Three Bears?  Do I need things just right according to my standard?  Do I need a certain song? Do I need the right music with the song?  Do I need the building not too hot, not too cold but just right? What do I need to Worship?  Wednesday the stage was cleared.  There were no musicians for the piano or guitar.  There were no extras to run a sound system to go to the plan b of soundtracks.  It was just voices to be lifted in praise.  It was not the most comfortable of settings.  I found myself thinking of how often do we let the “music” move us and carry our emotions?  God spoke into my heart to imagine what the worship sounded like to HIS EARS when Paul and Silas sang praises in the prison at the midnight hour. They had been beaten and locked up and there were no musicians, no right conditions, just them, the chains, the bars, and the rock and yet they lifted their voice in praise.  Was the voices cracked from pain?  Possibly.  But it moved the Father that the very foundations of the prison shook.  I found myself asking, when is the last time my praise came from a singleness of heart solely  to lift the Lord on High NO MATTER WHAT is going on around me?  When was the last time Worship moved the Father to shake the foundations of the place I was in?  Read the story in Acts 16:23-26 And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely:  (24) Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks.  (25)  And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.  (26)  And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed.

Another worship service, again God spoke to my heart as worship was hindered and tight.  Is this your best?  If this was the last time that you could Worship me on earth before you stood in front of me, would you be pleased or ashamed?  It broke my heart to think of my goldilocks mentality.  I could offer excuses that this wasn’t going right, or that something else needed changed or that someone was hindering me, but reality is the question was mine.  How would I answer to God for myself?  Would I be able at the moment to blame or shift the attention?  Again my heart broke.  The Word tells us in  1Ch 16:29  Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come before him: worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.  In John, he tells us in 4:24  God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

I am left with my two questions, as the Holy Spirit shines a light into my life and asks me to search my heart, 1) Am I giving my best in worship, no matter what?  2) Would I stand before God pleased or ashamed of my Worship if I were to stand in front of HIM? 

God, help me to be as all of creation and worship you with a pure heart, with all I have, come what may.