This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the One Who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. ~ 1 John 4:2-4, NIV
Today started off being a difficult day. I’m not surprised. Sunday mornings generally are, for me, anyway. I certainly can’t speak for anyone else out there reading this, but maybe there are some of you who can relate.
There’s an undercurrent of tension which, sadly, is always flowing in my home, but just seems to get worse on Sunday mornings. Some of you who read my blog and who know me personally are aware that I am what people in the Christian literary world like to refer to as ‘spiritually single.’ I’m married, but my husband does not share my faith in Jesus Christ. And that is a blog post for another day, which will be coming very soon. But I mention this fact because on Sunday mornings, the war between us always seems to become a fiercer one. Not with anything physical. Heavy crystal vases and fine china tea cups do not go flying through the air like they do in movies (we don’t own any of those things anyway). But sometimes, there is verbal sniping. Sometimes there is a feeling of deep coldness without any words being exchanged between us at all. And again, there is that ever present undercurrent of tension. When our children were younger, there was always a tug of war….would they come to church with Mommy or would they stay home with Daddy, who always seemed to find some really cool Sunday morning movie to put on and invite them to sit and watch it with him. Add to that just the normal fact that kids aren’t always dressed and ready when you want/need them to be, and by the time we all got to church, I was in no condition to worship. Most times, I just wanted to scream. Or cry. Or hide. Or to do all three. Ahh, the enemy of my soul, the Accuser, may not be smart, but oh, is he ever crafty. He's watched me long enough to know just what buttons to push and where to send those fiery missiles of his!
However, worshiping our great God is not contingent upon how my morning has been or how I feel. It doesn’t matter if I have a headache, or if I didn’t have a chance to have my morning coffee, or if my son and daughter are battling it out AGAIN over something inconsequential, or if my spouse says something unkind or ignores me completely as I walk out the door. God is worthy of my worship NO MATTER WHAT. This past Friday night, I went to see a worship concert by a Christian band called Seventh Day Slumber at Calvary Lighthouse Church in Lakewood. One of the T-shirts they had at their merch table had this emblazoned across the front:
WORSHIP IS A LIFESTYLE.
And I would have to agree with that. Worship is indeed a lifestyle. No matter what my life looks like….whether it’s in shambles or going along like a well oiled machine; all my problems hurts, issues and concerns aside….the Lord God is worthy of my worship. And He is greater than ANYTHING that is going on in my life, greater than ANYTHING that is going on in this world.
No comments:
Post a Comment