Have you
ever said or thought it’s been a tough
week, I can’t wait for church on Sunday? So often, we desperately wait for church so
that we can sing worship God, pray to Him and cry out to Him. We depend on the prayer and worship at church
to fill us up. To refreshen our
soul. We depend on the prayer and
worship at church just to make it through till the next service time.
Church is a
good thing. We meet God there. We feel at peace. We can go to the altar and feel His arms
wrap around us. We leave joyful and refilled. Church is a beautiful place to
feel the presence of God.
But did you
know you don’t have to wait for Sunday or Wednesday? God wants to meet with us every single day. Seven days a week, not just two.
We think we
go to fill up and just ‘survive’ till the next service but the
truth is corporate worship, being
together as a body, should be an outpouring of our private worship.
We can sing
and worship God in our home. We can read
our Bible in our home. We can pray, talk
and listen to God in our home. We can
shout out, bow down and dance around in our home. God wants to meet with us, one on One, in our
secret place every day. He wants that intimate time with us. Nowhere in the Word does it say we have to be
in the temple to raise our hands and cry out to God. All over the Bible they met with God in their
homes and fields, not just the church.
Service on Sunday, every time we gather at our church, it
should be an outpouring, a reflection of what we are doing in private.
I know many
of us will say I am busy; I just don’t
have the time to read my Bible and really pray at home. We may even say that is why Sunday is so important to us. Let me
ask you this. Do you make time for your
favorite tv show? Do you make time to
watch your favorite sports game? Do you
make time to go to the salon or gym? We
always make time for the things we love. But we are making time for things that have
no eternal value. No eternal significance
at all. Yet when it comes to our private
worship with God, the relationship that can send us either to Heaven or keep us
from Heaven, we are lackadaisical.
If you are
not spending time with God daily, I encourage you to start. Make it a priority. If you don’t know where to begin, quietly
turn on worship music, grab your Bible and for few minutes just
sit in the presence of God. Then begin
to pray. Talk to Him, listen to
Him. Read some Scripture. And I greatly encourage you to get an
accountability partner. Someone to hold
you accountable, to encourage you to have a quiet time. Someone to push you along when you need. My accountability group means the world to me
and has held me up and pushed me on when I just didn't want to do it.
Let’s begin
to be serious about making time with God a top priority. Let’s begin to build an intimate relationship
with our Father.
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Amen, Jenifer! I love this! As much as I love my church and love being there, it is not the same as my own personal time with God at home...I NEED both...and my relationship with Him is so much stronger when I have BOTH!
ReplyDeleteAccountability helps me the most, not only in my quiet time but in exercising and other areas where I need to be disciplined. I need my quiet time otherwise it affects everyone..and not in a good way! :)
ReplyDeleteYou're right, Jenifer, we need both. I NEED both.
ReplyDeleteDank je/ thank you for this encouragement! That what I need sometimes and I am glad that your blog is so practical.
ReplyDeletegreat message ♥ i'm trying to condition myself this week to reach for my bible first thing when i wake up in the morning instead of my iphone - i know it's just something little but i think you're right: we need to make concentrated efforts to see, hear and praise God throughout every part of every day :)
ReplyDeleteSpending time in His Word makes all the difference in my day. Good reminder, Jenifer.
ReplyDeleteYes! I think too many times we see church as a 'gas station'. It's another place to fill up, sure. But the relationship starts with you and God. Not with you and the church community.
ReplyDeleteI have nothing else to say but AMEN!! I am guilty of that sometimes.. thank you for the reminder!!
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteGood reminders! I heard Joyce Meyer just this morning make the statement that we do what we want badly enough to do....
Hi,Jenifer! Thanks for the reminder that we need to make time throughout the week for prayer, worship, and study time with God. I recently have been thinking that I need to re-evaluate my schedule and make time again, since I've been falling behind in this area the past few months.
ReplyDeleteBlessings to you! Ann @ Christ in the Clouds
Thanks for sharing. That's a good word!
ReplyDelete