We are going to "enter the year with praise." Our January readings and devotionals will all focus on the goodness and grace of God. Get a journal or notebook to write down your thoughts every day. Our passages are shorter - please don't rush through them. Take time to meditate and consider why God is worthy of your praise.
Enter 2020 with the praise of God on your lips!
Today's Praise Passage: Psalm 96
Sing a new song to the Lord;
let the whole earth sing to the Lord.
2 Sing to the Lord, bless his name;
proclaim his salvation from day to day.
3 Declare his glory among the nations,
his wondrous works among all peoples.
4 For the Lord is great and is highly praised;
he is feared above all gods.
5 For all the gods of the peoples are idols,
but the Lord made the heavens.
6 Splendor and majesty are before him;
strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.
7 Ascribe to the Lord, you families of the peoples,
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
8 Ascribe to the Lord the glory of his name;
bring an offering and enter his courts.
9 Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness;
let the whole earth tremble before him.
10 Say among the nations: “The Lord reigns.
The world is firmly established; it cannot be shaken.
He judges the peoples fairly.”
11 Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice;
let the sea and all that fills it resound.
12 Let the fields and everything in them celebrate.
Then all the trees of the forest will shout for joy
13 before the Lord, for he is coming—
for he is coming to judge the earth.
He will judge the world with righteousness
and the peoples with his faithfulness.
Through the Bible Reading: Genesis 11-12, Matthew 5:1-20, Psalm 4, Proverbs 1:10-15
Some of our readers want a little more "meaty" devotional, so I am including a link to the through Through the Bible in One Year readings we did last year.
Devotional: Acts of Worship
True worship is our highest purpose in life, but we often mistake worship for emotionalism and religious ritual. There are three acts of worship, demonstrated in Psalm 96:7-9, that comprise biblical worship. If we do these things, we have worshiped. If we do not, we have not worshiped, regardless of how we feel, or what we experience.
First Act of Worship:
We Bow Down
Verse 9
tells us to "worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness." In both the Old and New Testaments, the
primary word for worship means "to bow down". Psalm 95:6-7 says, "Come, let us bow
down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our maker; for He is our God and
we are the people of His pasture, the flock under His care." Worship is the act of bowing down in humility
before the Lord. The picture here is that of a subject bowing down to a king. The first act of worship is the enthronement
of God in our hearts and the renewal of our submission and subjection to Him. "King of my life I crown thee now. Thine will the glory be."
When we
come into worship, we must say with David, "Search me, O God, and know my
heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way
everlasting." In worship, we bow
before our heavenly King and say, “My master, your will is my command.”
As we walk
through this sinful world, even the most committed of Christians tends to pick
up the dirt of the world. Our hearts
have an inborn tendency to depart from Him and to go back to our own ways, the
ways of the flesh, of the world. Worship
is needed to constantly bring us back to the ways of God. We need to examine our lives before Him and
allow Him to prune us. Worship must
include self-examination before God, repentance and submission to His
ways.
Second Act of Worship: We Lift Up
The second
act of worship is "lifting up his name." In Psalm 96 we are told to
"ascribe" to the Lord the glory due his name. Ascribe means to assign or to attribute - to spell it out plainly. We are to acknowledge the greatness of our
God. We are to give Him credit for who
He is and all that He does.
In praise, we give God the recognition and praise that is due him, and only a fraction of that. There's no flattery, only the accurate It is
important to note that all we are doing is giving God what is due Him. We do not have to make up flattery. We are simply taking our minds out of the
lies and deception of this world and recognizing the reality of the sovereign
glory of God. We praise God for His
character and for His mighty acts of power on our behalf.
Human
speech is inadequate to truly express all the glory due to the name of God, but
it is our job to try. We must spend time
in worship telling God how wonderful He in and how thankful we are for all He
has done. In true worship, God is the
audience, not the people. We focus on
Him, give glory to Him, lift high His name.
Third Act of Worship: We Lay Down
No one in
the Old Testament would think of coming to worship God without an
offering, it cost
something to worship God. It required an
offering, a sacrifice. David refused
to worship the Lord with "that which cost me nothing." The sacrifice that is required of the New
Testament believer is described in Romans 12:1.
We are to lay down our bodies as living sacrifices.
Every time you worship God you renew that sacrifice, giving your life to him anew for this day. No worshiper will become inactive or spiritually lazy. When you bow down before the Lord, lift up his holy name, and then lay down your life as a sacrifice, you are motivated to rise up and serve him with your body, your soul, and your spirit.
Worship prepares us for the powerful ministry that God has laid out for
us.
Father, I worship you today by bowing before you, glorifying your name, and giving you my life, once again, for your service.
Think and Pray:
Meditate on this passage and write down:
1. The character qualities of God for which you can praise him.
2. The gracious acts of God for which you can give thanks to him.
Bow down before the Lord of the Universe today.
Lift up the name of the Lord and give him the glory his name deserves.
Lay down, again, your life as a living sacrifice to him, to use as he sees fit.
Lift up the name of the Lord and give him the glory his name deserves.
Lay down, again, your life as a living sacrifice to him, to use as he sees fit.
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