✝️ Daily Devotional - May 19, 2021
💜 Worship: If you'd like to play a song before you begin or while you read, may we recommend "Be Enthroned" by Bethel Music. Why not try asking alexa, siri, or google to play it for you?!
🧡 Daily Verse: But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”
☆ John 4:23-24 NLT
💚 Let's Talk About It: The Jews had many traditions. In their sacrificial system, much had become routine. There was little worship as we worship today.
The Psalms may have been sung at times, and certain books were read at certain feasts, but worshipping God in spirit was a foreign concept for many in the first century church. This is why John had to explain this in chapter four of his Gospel.
Moving from a religious mindset into relationship can feel foreign. I remember growing up and being taken to a southern Baptist church, no one dared raised a hand or clapped while singing from the hymn book.
So, when I stepped into a pentecostal church for the first time, I felt uncomfortable. It was completely foreign. The openness of worship was something I was not used to.
While my flesh wanted to run, my spirit was refreshed. The more I attended, the more free I became in spirit and the less reserved in worship I became. I went from singing softly and robotically to belting out the songs with everything within me, right at the altar, leaving the comfortability of my seat for a moment at the altar with Jesus.
I went from caring about how I was perceived by man to being concerned about how I was perceived by God. I wanted to worship Him without reservation, in spirit, and true to how God created me.
As I continue to push the boundaries of what I believe worship is, I've learned anything can be worship. My paintings are very intimate times of worship where I intuitively stroke the brush and pour the paint how the Holy Spirit leads me. It goes deeper than what can be perceived by those who watch as I work.
Likewise, as I learn praise dance, again I feel a release of that which has been bottled up for so long. We were designed to move, to flow with the music, and to use our full bodies in worship of God.
If this wasn't the case, why would God have sent the Israelites marching around Jericho for seven days? Or sent the worshippers out in front of the Israelite army to sing and march when preparing for battle?
Our worship is a weapon, and the sooner we all grab hold of this truth, the sooner we can use the light of Christ within us to stamp out the darkness of this world that seeks to encase us and those we love!
Sing, dance, shout, paint, create, play an instrument; worship the Lord how you've been created to and you'll realize - it's what you've been created to do all along!
💛 Prayer: Father God, I am so thankful that You have helped me break free of all the wishes to hold me back in worship. Thank You, Lord, for allowing me to move, dance, sing, and worship in spirit and in truth. I thank You Jesus, for the freedoms that can only be found in Your New Covenant. I am so grateful to be able to be worship You in a myriad of ways. There is no one like You, God, You are supreme - the one and only Living God - Lord of All! Father, if there be a place in my heart where worship still feels foreign, help me to break free from religious mindsets and customs in order that I may worship You wholeheartedly. Lord Jesus, I love You and in Your precious name I pray, amen.