Good Monday morning (9-27-10),

Here’s another quote as we continue examining the subject of praise:

“Worship is when you’re aware that what you’ve been given is far greater than what you can give. Worship is the awareness that were it not for His touch, you’d still be hobbling and hurting, bitter and broken. Worship is the half-glazed expression on the parched face of a desert pilgrim as he discovers that the oasis is not a mirage.

“Worship is the ‘thank you’ that refuses to be silenced…

“Worship is a voluntary act of gratitude offered by the saved to the Savior, by the healed to the Healer, and by the delivered to the Deliverer.” (Max Lucado, In the Eye of the Storm)

Remember Pastor Carl’s statement: “there is fact, and then there is the truth.” We mustn’t confuse the two. Fact is what we experience with our senses; what we understand with the intellect. Fact can be compelling because it presses us where we feel and think. But facts can change, they do change, often quite quickly and without warning.

Truth is based on what God says. It remains foundational and solid in spite of the facts because truth is eternal. Truth never changes.

Worship is what rises out of us when we take our eyes off the facts and set them on the truth.

For instance: Looking at the bare facts I might say, “I am all alone — no person is sharing my life. All my friends have deserted me…no one will even give me the time of day.” But the truth is that He will never leave me or forsake me. The truth is He has loved me from the beginning of time. He died for me. He is always willing and eager to walk with me, talk with me, and provide for me. The truth is that my God has come to make His home in me and He is always there. He holds my very breath in the palm of His hand. The truth is that I am never alone.

Oh Lordy — that truth will worship!

The facts may appear to tell me I am hollowed out and empty from the struggles and injuries of this world. I may feel dried up and forgotten, wounded and left for dead. But the truth is that there is a river of life flowing just for me. There is a well of deep clear cold water full of glory and strength for me to drink, and it will never go dry. Once I taste it I will never be thirsty again.

Now there’s a song that will sing!

Perhaps the fact appears to be that I have lost my way; that I can’t perceive any purpose for my life. I look at the facts and I’m convinced that nothing I do matters and there is no good reason for my existence. But the truth, praise God, is that I was chosen from the foundation of the world to live in this place and this time. There is a path prepared for me to walk, and on it are works that only I can do, and good things have been prepared and placed just for me all along the way.

The truth is that God knows who I am, where I am, and how I am. If He keeps track of the sparrow, then He is keeping track of me. The truth is that I am not lowly, downtrodden, forgotten, or unimportant.

I am the beloved of the God of the universe.

He has prepared a table for me. My cup runs over. He stretches His wing over me so I can abide in His secret place. What matters to me, matters to Him.

Worship is easy. All I have to do is look up, look at what is real — fix my gaze on the eternal truth instead of the momentary facts. When I do that, praise rises out of my inmost being like water from a spring. Worship bubbles up and bursts forth and transforms the moment, changing me in the process.

Lift up your eyes. Your salvation has arrived. The truth is that you are everything of value to Jesus. Celebrate His love, which is your hope and your future.

“He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death and broke apart the bonds that held them. Oh, that men would praise the Lord for His goodness and loving-kindness and His wonderful works to the children of men! For He has broken the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron apart.” Ps. 107:14-16

“Now thanks be to God for His Gift, precious, beyond telling (His indescribable, inexpressible, free Gift)!” II Cor. 9:15

Laurie Gross