“I will celebrate before the Lord” - 2 Sam 6:21 (NIV)
Sometime back I came across a video clip of a group of men seated somewhere and sniping about other people’s style of worship, which was too much for them. They felt those other people’s way of worship was being quite too expressive.
Now of-course looking down on some other person and their worship style comes with a long tradition, taunted with a bit of pride. When David took to the streets dancing in jubilation for return of the ark, his wife, Micah, a princess from the house of King Saul, was certainly not so amused and despised him at that ( 2 Sam 6: 16- 23).
But what Micah and these men apparently were missing was that our worship is not meant for men but God. Maybe we should always first ask if God is happy before we rush to frown upon others whose strokes are not to our taste.
This by the way is not meant to do away with order in church; all congregations need rules to manage services. But we error where we start squeezing God in a how to worship him to do box.
Prayer for today: Lord Father in heaven today I pray that I may know when it comes to worship if is for you and not to please man.
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19/04/2024 - 20/04/2024 All day“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland” ( Isaiah 43:19).
Just before fire was unleashed down on Sodom and Gommorah, Lot was told to pack up with his wife and two daughters and leave their homestead. Now, once out of danger, “But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt” ( Gen 19:26). Perhaps here we might pause and ask why she was bothered to look back.
Of course it could have been that old “curiosity killed a cat” mistake! Yet, it could also have been Lot’s wife was not sure where she was going and longed for her old life back. This is a common error. There was nothing stirring to look back. Just before Lot’s neighbors had attacked his house eager to rape his visitors. “They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them” ( vv 5). Was there anything worth looking back to!
The case of Lot’s wife could be anyone else’s experience. The Lord has plucked you out of some mess. You have been delivered to a new life. Yet, somehow you decide to look back, as though there was anything good and worth longing for. Sometimes it is a bitter past you have been delivered from. Other than rejoice in your new blessings you keep being drawn back!
A wise caution goes, “As a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat their folly” ( Proverbs 26:11). If the Lord has just led you out of a certain mess why look back like it was much better! Instead look ahead, for “he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick: Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past” ( vv 17- 18).
Prayer today: Lord Father God of Abraham, maker of heaven and earth, I thank you for delivering me from the darkness of the past and I look forward to a bright new future in you, this I pray in Jesus’ name!
