This week we looked at the fourth thing that matters to God: Worship. We learned that (1) Worship must be directed toward God alone. (2) Worship must be in Spirit. (3) Worship must be in Truth. Worship is not, and never has been about something we do ( i.e. we pray for 15 minutes, sing a dirge, and give a tithe and therefore we have worshipped God). It’s always been about Him who is our all.

But, it’s hard to pray. It’s hard to remember to commune with Christ. It’s really hard to give. So, we have two ways that we can go: Keep pressing forward to give, commune, and pray each day and mark it off on your calendar while gritting your teeth because we know that it’s the right thing to do. Or, we can fall in love with our Savior all over again and begin truly worshipping Him in spirit and in truth. Please understand the subtle difference here: (1) We do things to get close to God. (2) We fall in love with Jesus and then use the things that we used to do grudgingly as normal expressions of the love that is in our hearts.

I used to go about my day never thinking about my wife until she became increasingly frustrated. Finally, I decided I would do something. I scheduled time to “think” about her in my palm pilot. But it was so routine, so stale. I would see it and think, “Oh yeah. I have to do that.” The past two years after getting help I no longer put Miriam into my palm pilot because she’s in my heart. I’m always thinking of her because I long to be with her. So, now my heart tells me to go to my wife, not my palm pilot.

Could we all get to that point with God? Rather than have a checklist where we have our quiet time, give our tithe, and commune with Christ maybe we could long to be with our first love because of who He is. Then and only then will we spend time with Him, pray, and give our money out of pure love for our Father who desperately desires to build a relationship with us. I know it’s subtle, but it’s real.

Dawson Lange