Saturday Night Worship

Psalm 51:15
Unseal my lips, O Lord, that my mouth may praise you......

Had a moment Saturday night during Vineyard ReCovery.
I was leading worship.....
Up on the stage with my other cohorts that make up the band, when it just washed over me.
The room was filled with singing....
Now don't get me wrong, this wasn't the first time such has happened, but Saturday night I was suddenly filled with gratitude for everyone in that room.
For some reason, the songs connected with the hearts and praise broke out.
I didn't plan for it to happen...
Oh, I had prayed about it, asking God to show up in our meeting.
If you quiz anyone who leads worship they will tell you that it's their hearts desire for true worship to break out in the meeting. Such is kind of a barometer for the hearts of those present. 

Anyway, I found myself falling in love with each person in that room....
loving them right where they were in life.
Loving them even if they had come to the meeting for all the wrong reasons.
Maybe they just needed a stamp for their court card, and cared nothing about the worship or the message.
Maybe there were there to simply get off the premises of the treatment program they were enrolled at.
It didn't matter, they were there........standing...........singing.
O.k......you may be thinking. They were singing, so what?
It wasn't just the sound of voices that were singing....it was the emotion behind the voices.
A sense of gratitude....
A sense of thankfulness that for a brief moment in the day, the problems that everyone faced were moved to the back burner, so to speak.
For that brief moment, God was the most important thing in that room.
Those are the moments I live for. That is the focus for my own life.....always keeping God at the top of my life and situations. Never letting the world suck me down into the muck and mire of selfishness or self-centeredness. Not joining in the worlds' pity party of "Woe is me....everyone is against me". Lifting my vision off the things of this world,and focusing on the one and only Living God.

 In those moments when our attention is turned to God, there we begin the process of building on our faith. I don't have faith in God to straighten out my messes and make all my problems go away....
I have faith in God that He is who He claims to be....
And that He will do what He has promised He would do.
In this thinking (with my heart and not my head) I place my very life and will in His care, with a full understanding that He knows better what I need and where I need to go than I do.

As we leave the meeting every Saturday night, the coming week helps to strengthen and define my life in Christ. The struggles....the problems....the circumstances I face during the week, all become a part of my belief in God. They becomes the building blocks that God uses to change me into the man I am suppose to be.

So next time you're in a worship service....do that! Worship, I mean. Cut loose and be filled with gratitude...
If you're driving down the road and a you're listening to a favorite worship song..then yell out "THANK YOU JESUS!" at the top of your lungs. Let it come from deep down inside you.
To me...worship is gratitude that is verbally and openly expressed and declared.
Make such a part of your day. In fact, consider making it a  priority of your day, to openly and verbally declare your love for God.

God on you...
mbb