HIS Encouragement #18

Good morning, and welcome to His Encouragement Thursday! I don’t know about you, but Thursdays are my struggle day of the week. By Thursday, I have already been working hard at school and at home, and I just wish it would hurry up and be Friday already. LOL! I definitely need a little extra Jesus time on Thursdays.

Trisha, my blogger friend at Joy of Reading, and I decided on calling this post “His Encouragement” because our real source of peace, strength, and security can only come from Jesus Christ. He, and He alone, is our constant! We pray and hope that these Thursday posts become a real encouragement to you and help you end your week strong in God’s love and purpose for you. God bless!

Today’s Thursday Encouragement comes from:

Psalm 95:6 (ESV)

Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!

I am currently working through a Bible study called Meeting With God with R.C. Sproul. It can be found on the You Version Bible app, and is provided by Ligonier Ministries. So far, I am really enjoying the study, and I do recommend it if you have the You Version Bible app on your phone/electronic device, but a statement made in the day 3 devotional kind of irks me. Let me share…

Day three in this study is called “Surveying the Crisis of Worship.” It talks about a survey that was completed about church attendance. According to this survey, people stay away from church because they find it boring and/or irrelevant. The devotional text then states, “If people find worship boring and irrelevant, it can only mean they have no sense of the presence of God in it.” This sentence really bugs me. It seems snarky and judgmental. It puts all of the problem onto the individual attending church, but completely ignores the obligation church has to its people. I have been to churches that were awful. Sometimes, the awfulness came from the sermon being tedious, preachy, and pompous. Sometimes, the awfulness came from the congregation — it was clear I was an outsider and wasn’t really welcome. And, sometimes, the awfulness came from the fact that the church was clearly of the world and not of God. Sometimes, yes, it is an individual’s inability to see the presence of God, but many times church is boring and irrelevant because of the church’s inability. Church and worshiping God are two different things. A person does not need church in order to worship God. A person just needs a willing heart.

So, what is worship anyway? And what is God expecting? According to Psalm 95:6, God wants us to come to Him, to bow down and praise Him as our Maker. He wants us to recognize Him in our lives. I think worship is comprised of many things: studying God’s Word, praying throughout the day, listening to Christian musicians or sermons in the car, and/or having great Biblical discussions with loved ones, a pastor, close friends, etc. All of these things can be a way for us to bow down to God, praise Him as our Maker, and recognize Him as the biggest part of our lives. As long as we are doing real, relational worship, we are doing exactly what He wants!

Just for fun…I’ve included my most favorite worship song, “How Can It Be?” by Lauren Daigle. I try to sing it all the way through, but I end up crying every time. I’m truly in awe of the sacrifice Jesus made for all of us!

Now, it’s your turn!

What Biblical verse is encouraging you today?

And, check out more Thursday Encouragement from my fellow blogger friends:

Trisha @ Joy of Reading

Jacquelyn @ A Heavenly Home

Jessica @ A Baker’s Perspective

If you would like to join us: please contact Trisha or Nicole