Do Not Neglect The Importance of Worship.

Recently, some friends of mine, one in particular, who has been going through a rough situation that has been making it hard for him to hear from God. Out of respect, I won’t mention his name.

As I was counseling him, I felt the Holy Spirit telling me to tell him to spend time in worship every day. That worship is one leg of a three-leg stool. An often neglected one.

You see, while prayer and reading the word are important, and should not be neglected, you can not sit on a stool with two strong legs and one weak wobbly leg or you’ll fall backward and hurt yourself.

God told me that our relationship with Him is like a three-leg stool made up of prayer (talking to Him), reading His word (Learning and Hearing from Him, and worship (Focusing on Him and giving thanks).

Most of us are good and praying and reading the word every day. But many Christians are not faithful in worshiping God every day. This leaves us focused on all the bad things going on in our lives.

God gave me the example of when Peter walked on the water after Jesus told him to step out of the boat and walk to him (Matthew 14:29). Peter was fine as long as he kept his eyes on Jesus. But as soon as he took his eyes off of Jesus and focused on the wind and the waves, he became fearful and began to sink.

The Holy Spirit showed me that worship causes us to look away from the problems in our lives (the wind and the waves) and focus them on Jesus, the author, and finisher of our faith.

It causes our hearts and minds to be grateful and thankful for how much He loves us and for all that He has done in our lives. Worship allows us to feel His great love for us. It allows us to remember how big He is and how small our problems really are.

The Holy Spirit also gave me the example of the twelve spies who went into the promised land to see all that was there. Ten of them said that it was impossible to take the land because there were giants there. But two of them, Joshua and Caleb, said we can take the land because God is with us.

But the people listened to the ten instead of the twelve and it cost them going into the promised land (Numbers 13:30-31).

You see, the ten spies had their eyes on the obstacle (the problems) standing in their way. They saw them as being bigger than what God could handle. They were so overcome by fear as a result, that they lost hear and gave up. And it cost their whole generation.

But Joshua and Caleb had their eyes on the LORD. They remembered all that God had done for them and for all Israel. They remembered how God parted the Red Sea, how God had struck Egypt with the plaques and how the mountain with His very presence.

They kept their eyes on Yahweh, their God, they knew who He was and all that He had done in the past. And they knew how Awesome He is and that God would do what He promised to do.

They knew that since God was telling them to take the land, He was going to go before them, as He did in the past, and fight for them. They knew that that the battle wasn’t theirs, but was the LORD’s.

That is how they were so confident and were able to proclaim that we are able to take the land. For God is for us.

It is because of their great faith (trust) in Yahweh, their God, that they were the only two people from their generation who were allowed to enter the promised land.

That is why worship is so very important. When we worship God, we are placing our focus on Him. Worship causes us to remember all of His promises and all the He has done for us and in our lives.

Worship allows God to remind us of all that He has brought us through. It causes us to remember how big He is compared to our problems. When we worship, we remember all of His promises.

And as the psalmist (Helen Howarth Lemmel) once wrote “Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full into His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.”

The Holy Spirit is challenging us to take time every day, throughout the day, to worship Him for who He is and for all that He has done for us, for all that He is doing for us, and for all that He will do for us.

Whether it’s singing along to worship music on YouTube, on a CD, Mp3, Itunes, etc or singing to him the songs He puts into our hearts throughout the day, or just singing songs of thankfulness and gratitude.

We must worship every day. It is paramount to our survival and to our walk with Him. Worship is not just an activity we do one Sunday mornings or whenever else we have a church service or group Bible study; it is part of the Christian walk (lifestyle).

Just as God is three in One, so our relationship with Him has three parts: Prayer, Bible Study (reading the word), and Worship.

As it is written: A three fold cord is not quickly broken. Ecclesiastes 4:12b