Worship 2016

I want you to close your eyes for just a minute ... okay wait ... that won't work since I want you to read ... but you get the picture. This was the lead in for our first Word of the Year small group on Saturday morning ... 

so maybe for us it reads, in your mind's eye ...  

think about how life has changed in the last  10 years ... The last 5 year ... The last year ... That last month ...  The last week .... Maybe even the last 24 hours

That's a picture of how much life could change in the coming day ... The coming week ... The coming year 

and now, shift your focus ... 

The Lord was not caught off guard by the delay of our gathering (by the blizzard that wasn't in the valley) ... I know of circumstances in several of our lives that  bear witness to that. But He alone knew last week that we would need to be sitting together at His feet this morning. 

““Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.””

Jeremiah 1:5 ESV

He alone knew. 

He was not caught off guard by the change in circumstance since he gave you your Word. 

He is the same yesterday, today and Forever ... Hebrews 13:8 

Only the Lord is able to tell us things that we can not know. 

Jeremiah 33:3 

“Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.”

Jeremiah 33:3 ESV

Heres the hitch in that for me ... I really wanted Him to tell me WHAT WAS COMING ... but it's my testimony that this is how he takes my weakness and prepares me for how He's going to chisel me to look more like Him. 

My word this year is worship ... And I had a picture in my mind of what that looked like ... 

But my perception is shifting quickly. Because while worship is my word ... 

Idolatry is my sin. 

“What gain has the worker from his toil? I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man. I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him. That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away.”

Ecclesiastes 3:9-15 ESV

I have spent a tremendous amount of time in the past two years mourning what used to be, what hasn't happened, what appears will never happen, what has happened in the past ... I've lived fearful of what's to come and maybe more to the point what I'm afraid won't come to pass ... 

EVEN AFTER WATCHING WITH MY VERY OWN EYES THE SCALES LITERALLY WIPED AWAY FROM AJ'S EYES ... 

something I prayed for two solid years over ... Fasted over ... Wept over ... More times than not day and night ...

Because I still trust more in my plans than in His. But no where in the scripture does it say be joyful when everything is going according to my plan. It says ... 

In every thing be joyful ... Eat, drink, Take pleasure in your toil ... That is His gift to us!!! 

And the New testament confirms that in James 

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.”

James 1:2-6 ESV

Our days were written before the beginning of time ... He is the only one who is able to equip us for what is to come ... No matter what ... 

So as I learn to be a true worshipper of the one who holds all my tomorrows ... 

as I step into the fullness of embracing this 2016 Journey that the Father has for me ... 

as I trust Him with what I can not yet see ...

and believe Him for that which deposits tear after tear in HIs bowl that holds the tears of the saints ... 

what are you trusting Him for today? Could my group and I pray with you on a matter?