Today, I experienced two A-mazing sermons. The first was about Praising God in prayer. You know, I have never really thought about it before - how much time I put into thinking about myself during prayers versus how much of it I am thinking about God's awesomeness and praising him.
How could I miss that?
I mean, ME ... the nature lover. The woman who can't pass a huge tree all alone in an open field without commenting on its incredible beauty. Or the woman who can't drive home at sundown looking at the multicolored sky without thinking of God's majesty. Yes, the same woman who can't hold a baby or lay my head on the pillow across from my husband and stare into his eyes without thinking about the love that He shows for us in everything around us.
But why am I just thinking about it in passing instead of telling God in prayer how amazing He is? Would I go my entire life thinking about how great my husband is and how proud I am of him and not say it to him? Of course not. So why do I not express that in a relationship that means so much more to me than my marriage here on earth? That is a huge fault of mine, and I really hope to change it. I want to spend more of my time just praising God for Who He is, instead of thanking Him for what He has done for ME or requesting things for ME.
Oh, to deny self. How hard it is sometimes.
I was also thinking a lot about Reverence today.
And wondering if I give Him the type of reverence that He deserves.
This should be something that we take so seriously .. out of respect and love.
No matter what ridiculous things our society tries to make our Lord -
Examples:
The truth is ... He is not some hip saying to make us feel less awkward in a society constantly trying to be "cool". He is not a joke to balance out your spiritual facebook status for the day for your "church friends" and your humor for your other ones.
GOD IS OUR POWERFUL, Genesis 1:1-3 & 27, Colossians 1:16, I Chronicles 29:11-13,
MAJESTIC, SOVEREIGN I Timothy 6:15-16, Isaiah 40:12-26, & Psalm 115:3. CREATOR
GOD IS LOVING, I John 4:8, Psalm 36:5-7, Lamentations 3:21-23,
COMPASSIONATE & PATIENT Deuteronomy 7:9-10, II Peter 3:9, & Genesis 6:3.
GOD IS PERFECTLY Deuteronomy 32:4, Psalm 45:6-7, Exodus 34:7, & Psalm 7:9-11. RIGHTEOUS & JUST
ABOVE ALL ELSE, Isaiah 6:1-3, Psalm 99:5, Habakkuk 1:13a, Psalm 5:5-6,
GOD IS HOLY & PURE Luke 5:4-9, & Isaiah 57:15.
BECAUSE HE IS HOLY, GOD Romans 1:18-20, Nahum 1:2-7, II Thessalonians 1:6-9,
IS A GOD OF GREAT WRATH Hebrews 10:26-31, Isaiah 55:8-9, & Matthew 10:28.
I have to tell you, it made me reallydisheartened appalled to see some of my friend's facebook statuses a couple of weekends ago have the Lord's prayer, but in the place of anything about God or Heaven, they had inserted Tony Romo and the Cowboys Stadium. It started off something like this - " Our Romo, who art in Dallas ..."
You can't get anymore sacrilegious than that, people.
As if it isn't bad enough to take out God and put in a mere man in place of a prayer, but to use the Dallas Cowboys? Really?
{psstt ... uh, Theresa ... are you ready to lose half of your blog readers
and facebook friends with this next rant?} ...
Well, ... SURE.
A team that took away the land and houses of hard working people just trying to make a living (disrupting hundreds, if not thousands, of lives, destroying 104 homes of an estimated 312 residents, forcing the evacuation of an estimated 871 residents from several destroyed apartment complexes, obliterating 32 businesses, everything from restaurants to tire stores to banks to motels) to build their billion dollar stadium? Really? A team that has had a number of players over the years in jail for illegal activities? Really? A team that has more half naked women dancing around in the stadium than a strip club? Really? A place where Miller Lite signs the 12 year contract and advertises heavily as the "beer sponsor"? Really? I know they say that this is "God's Team", but I hate to break it to you people, I'm pretty sure that God isn't cheering for anything going on inside of that stadium.
There. Somebody HAD to say it.
...
God deserves so much of our respect and praise.
He doesn't deserve prayers that stem from a comedy scene in Talladega Nights, or to be bunched in the same facebook status as something crude or blasphemous to get laughs.
How can we be this irreverent? Why can't we see that it is not about us?
It is NOT about us.
I hope that in the following days, weeks, months ... YEARS, I can be better at praising God and giving Him the kind of Respect that He deserves. I hope that I never decide to make Him a joke to get laughs. That I never replace his name with any other to win fans. I am not after the hearts of men, I am after the heart of God. I fall short, very short, but I am trying.
"For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever."
-1 John 2: 16-17
I'm sorry Lord, for the thing I've made it. When it's all about you.
GOD IS OUR POWERFUL, Genesis 1:1-3 & 27, Colossians 1:16, I Chronicles 29:11-13,
MAJESTIC, SOVEREIGN I Timothy 6:15-16, Isaiah 40:12-26, & Psalm 115:3. CREATOR
GOD IS LOVING, I John 4:8, Psalm 36:5-7, Lamentations 3:21-23,
COMPASSIONATE & PATIENT Deuteronomy 7:9-10, II Peter 3:9, & Genesis 6:3.
GOD IS PERFECTLY Deuteronomy 32:4, Psalm 45:6-7, Exodus 34:7, & Psalm 7:9-11. RIGHTEOUS & JUST
ABOVE ALL ELSE, Isaiah 6:1-3, Psalm 99:5, Habakkuk 1:13a, Psalm 5:5-6,
GOD IS HOLY & PURE Luke 5:4-9, & Isaiah 57:15.
BECAUSE HE IS HOLY, GOD Romans 1:18-20, Nahum 1:2-7, II Thessalonians 1:6-9,
IS A GOD OF GREAT WRATH Hebrews 10:26-31, Isaiah 55:8-9, & Matthew 10:28.
I have to tell you, it made me really
You can't get anymore sacrilegious than that, people.
As if it isn't bad enough to take out God and put in a mere man in place of a prayer, but to use the Dallas Cowboys? Really?
{psstt ... uh, Theresa ... are you ready to lose half of your blog readers
and facebook friends with this next rant?} ...
Well, ... SURE.
A team that took away the land and houses of hard working people just trying to make a living (disrupting hundreds, if not thousands, of lives, destroying 104 homes of an estimated 312 residents, forcing the evacuation of an estimated 871 residents from several destroyed apartment complexes, obliterating 32 businesses, everything from restaurants to tire stores to banks to motels) to build their billion dollar stadium? Really? A team that has had a number of players over the years in jail for illegal activities? Really? A team that has more half naked women dancing around in the stadium than a strip club? Really? A place where Miller Lite signs the 12 year contract and advertises heavily as the "beer sponsor"? Really? I know they say that this is "God's Team", but I hate to break it to you people, I'm pretty sure that God isn't cheering for anything going on inside of that stadium.
There. Somebody HAD to say it.
...
God deserves so much of our respect and praise.
He doesn't deserve prayers that stem from a comedy scene in Talladega Nights, or to be bunched in the same facebook status as something crude or blasphemous to get laughs.
How can we be this irreverent? Why can't we see that it is not about us?
It is NOT about us.
I hope that in the following days, weeks, months ... YEARS, I can be better at praising God and giving Him the kind of Respect that He deserves. I hope that I never decide to make Him a joke to get laughs. That I never replace his name with any other to win fans. I am not after the hearts of men, I am after the heart of God. I fall short, very short, but I am trying.
"For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever."
-1 John 2: 16-17
I'm sorry Lord, for the thing I've made it. When it's all about you.
Beautiful and thought provoking. That's all I can say. Thanks for sharing Theresa.
ReplyDeleteThis is something I need to work on in my prayer life as well...thanks for the post, it was needed.
ReplyDeleteI think this is one of my favorite posts that you have done. This post was very needed and I wish more people would read it. I too seem to forget to give complete thanks to Him in my prayers ALL THE TIME. So thanks for bringing it up b/c it is somehthing that I need to work harder on. And I agree with you on people's facebook status's. There needs to be alot more reverance from people towards God than just a silly comment or just using His name in vain. Thanks again for the post and keep up the good work that you are doing.
ReplyDeleteKristin
that was very thought provoking and very insightful! i hate it when people treat God as if he is an accessory, a handbag to show off sometimes and to throw around at others...this made me look into myself and repent if i have done this. thanx for such a great post!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful post! Thank you for sharing. Keep sharing His good word!
ReplyDeleteThis was such an incredibly beautiful post. And then I came to the "Jesus is my homeboy" picture and I was like, "Really? Please don't tell me she likes this!" And you don't and I'm so happy! I don't like the fact that Jesus has been reduced to a "homeboy." It's just wrong.
ReplyDeleteHave I mentioned how happy I am that I found your blog? So, so, SO happy!
Wow! This was amazing. It was wonderfully God-saturated. Thanks for this post.
ReplyDelete