Laced With Grace

“I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.   And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”  Romans 12:1,2

How I live my daily life is influenced by my view of eternity.  I firmly believe that my life today is part of eternity, therefore worship should be my way of life.

Worship is more than something we do like sing, pray, read our Bibles. It’s how I live out my life. Yes, it’s an act of devotion and involves all those components, but my ambition isn’t to simply become skilled and proficient at doing things and then proclaim I have worshiped. My most holy ambition is to be Christ like with every breath I take.  To be molded and transformed into His likeness.

When I read about the lives of great Christians, heroes of the faith, I see three common threads in their life style of worship.

First, they live a life of brokenness – a desperate sense of needing God, that it’s all about Him and not them.

The second common thread I see interwoven into the fabric of their lives is an uncommon communion with God. There was/is an attitude of pray that permeated their lives. They lived and breathed His presence. They spent serious amounts of time with the Lord.

Thirdly, they had radical, immediate obedience.

These three common threads are woven into the tapestry of every person God uses greatly. It was their spiritual service of worship to their Almighty God.

The first and third we can all do in any season of life.  But the second thread, uncommon communion with God, can be hard to do when you are homeschooling 4 little ones, nursing another, keeping your home, and meeting your husband’s needs.  Maybe we can’t devote hours to prayer and Bible study, but there is something we can do.

We can have our own “tent of meeting” like Moses had (Exodus 33:7-11).  He would frequently leave the group and go to his place to hear from God and the Lord would tell him what He wanted him to do. We can have our own private space to meet with Him and ask Him, “Lord, how would you have me show You my love and devotion? How may I worship You today?”

If you’re like the Mom I described above, His answer to you is not going to be, “Someday my dear daughter, I’m going to do something great with you, but right now, you just stay home.”  No, His answer is going to be something like this, “My dear daughter, I want you to make the most of each moment I give you today. I want you to use your unique position in life and your unique circumstances, and I want you to give time an injection of eternal values, a taste of heaven. Then those you meet and care for on your journey today will have seen a woman who truly loves Me and worships only Me.”

What’s your unique position or stage of  life?  What circumstances are you living with? Are you rising above the circumstance with an injection of eternal values, or are you smothering under the weight?  How can you use your position and circumstances to bring glory to God and worship Him?

Lord, I praise You for creating me to be me. Lord, I want to be the best I can be so I can point others to You and give you all the praise, honor, glory and  worship.

Create in me a spirit of brokenness. Give me an insatiable thirst and hunger for You. Lord, I want to have uncommon communion with You. I desire to give you radical, immediate obedience, but I’m weak and faint of heart at times. Help me to walk by faith with You and to trust You completely.

Lord, this is my one and only opportunity to live for eternity here on earth. To demonstrate a life committed to the service of worshipping You.

 I love You.

Your Humbly Grateful Daughter.

“I will extol Thee, my God, O King; And I will bless Thy name forever and ever. Everyday I will bless Thee, and I will praise Thy name forever and ever. Great is the LORD, and highly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise Thy works to another, and shall declare Thy mighty acts. On the glorious splendor of Thy majesty, and on Thy wonderful works, I will meditate.”  Psalm 145:1-5

When do you take down your Christmas tree and decorations?  For many, it all comes down this week. We pack them all up and put Christmas back in the box until next year. The warm fuzzies fade, and the reality of the present glares at us come January 2nd when everything goes back to the “normal” routine — back to work and school, appointments and paying the bills.

I don’t like packing Christmas away for another year. But I also don’t like keeping Jesus as a baby or in a box.

Yes, there is something simple about the birth of Jesus. We think of the story of a sweet baby laying peacefully in a manger and it somehow feels safe and warm. Visualizing Him as helpless and small makes Him seem easy to control.  I don’t need to deal with how big He really is, His greatness, majesty and power.

Jesus doesn’t want to remain a baby in our lives, nor does He want to can He be put into a box. In the beginning of Luke 2, we see Him as the baby in a manger, but by the end of the chapter we see He grew in wisdom, stature and in favor with God and men (Luke 2:52).  He was born full of grace and truth (John 1:14) and we can trust and follow Him in every circumstance of life. He came to be our Savior and He desires for all of us to see His majesty and awesome power, to fall to our knees and worship Him as our Savior and Lord. To put Jesus into a box would negate His grace that’s given to us freely, grace upon grace (John 1:16).  To relegate Jesus to a box of our own choosing, (i.e. legalism or humanism) is like thinking we have life under our own control.

The past few years I’ve started keeping one Christmas decoration or ornament out of the box, and place it somewhere where I least expect it. It serves as a visual reminder to not put Jesus in a box, but to see Him for Who He truly is, our Savior and Lord. This year, I’m keeping out one of my Moravian star ornaments to remind me of His splendor and majesty and His mighty works. It will also remind me to “shine like stars in the universe” before this sin sick world. (Philippians 2:15)

As you’re undecorating this week, pause and reflect upon His majesty, power and mighty works. Reflect upon His grace upon grace in your life. Don’t put Jesus in a box.

Prayer:

Lord, I love the presents and the lights. I’m not looking forward to taking it all down, but I’m most grateful for You sending Your Son as the Light of the World.  The simple, uncluttered way I decorated this year gently reminds me I don’t have to be all decked out in beautiful array to come before You; You are more concerned with what’s inside.

I don’t ever want to put You in a box. I pause right now and recognize you as my grown-up Savior and Lord, out of the feed box and on the throne of my heart.  Please help me to always keep You there.  May I continually mediate upon Your glorious splendor and wonderful works.  In Jesus Name, Amen.