"Let your first 'good morning' be to your Father in heaven" --- Karl Maeser (founder of Brigham Young University)
This mornings devotion is suggested by my wife Sharon. Sharon is working diligently on a program for a women's retreat weekend at West River, Maryland on October 14 - 16 2011. It is titled "Let go, Let God, then what? Listening for the voice of God. For more information, please contact the office at Hiss United Methodist Church 4106685665.
What would happen if we decided to let every thought and every breath bless and worship God? Imagine the result if His name were affectionately on our lips as we lay down at night, as we turned over in our sleep, as we awoke in the morning, as we went about our daily business. Would such a perspective radically change our hearts? Probably, yes. Would it change our world? It's likely. What if we were to start on a Sunday night after we had spent the morning at church, the afternoon and evening meditating on God's presence. Our last thought before we go to sleep is a prayer for a good night's sleep. Then upon awakening, our first thought is to say 'good morning,God!' Would it change your world? Would it change your family's world if they were to hear you say Good Morning to God first thing in the am?
Anytime in the Bible someone gives himself to worship, God does amazing things through that person. Blessings abound. God's work is done on earth as it is in heaven. What prevents us from such a pervasive sense of His worth in our lives on a Monday morning? Are our schedules for the week just too busy? Or does it go much deeper than that? Perhaps it is a suspicion that He has not been as good to us as Scripture declares that He is. Or maybe it is a subtle, or not so subtle resentment that he has not paved our paths with silver or gold and has allowed us to taste the bitterness of life's all too many trials.
Whatever reasons we can come up with, we should ask ourselves if a worship filled heart is worth the Monday morning sacrifice that we would otherwise give over to business, apathy, and disappointment. If we really want to get more than a small vision of God working in and around us, we should never claim to be too busy. We would never be too apathetic, we could never be disappointed with His will for us. We would likely have a far better understanding that underlying everything we go through and every responsibility we are given is the loving hand of a God who is leading us closer to Him. The end result is a greater blessing than any earthbound human can imagine.
Our understanding of worship may need a major restructuring. The daily devotional, if practiced at all, usually gets a few minutes of early morning energy or late night exhaustion, and weekend worship services have tended far more toward performances that we watch or rituals that we mindlessly repeat such as arriving on "church" time (five or ten minutes late), and then watching the clock to be sure the worship leader gets us out on time so we can eat.
Scripture, however, constantly affirms that worship is a VERB, not a noun. It is something we choose to do, not something we choose to sit through; something that engages us on a Monday morning after church, not something that we watch pass us by as we go through our week. The Biblical view of worship sees it as a daily lifestyle rather than an isolated act on Sunday mornings. Paul wrote to the church at Rome "I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:1-2 NRSV).
Let us pray ......
Breathe on me, breath of God,
Fill me with life anew,
That I may love what Thou dost love,
And do what Thou wouldst do.
Fill me with life anew,
That I may love what Thou dost love,
And do what Thou wouldst do.
Breathe on me, breath of God,
Until my heart is pure,
Until with Thee I will one will,
To do and to endure.
Until my heart is pure,
Until with Thee I will one will,
To do and to endure.
Breathe on me, breath of God,
Blend all my soul with Thine,
Until this earthly part of me
Glows with Thy fire divine.
Blend all my soul with Thine,
Until this earthly part of me
Glows with Thy fire divine.
Breathe on me, breath of God,
So shall I never die,
But live with Thee the perfect life
Of Thine eternity.
So shall I never die,
But live with Thee the perfect life
Of Thine eternity.
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