to Him I owe
To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. Psalm 63:2
When I was younger, our town shut down on Sundays and Wednesday afternoons. Church attendance was much higher than it is now. I don’t remember eating out on Sundays until late in my teenage or early adult years. We went home, or to the homes of our family members. We spent time together, we sat on the front porch and talked. Life was so much different. Now, we can sit in the same room with family members as they stare at their phones. I’ve been guilty of it myself. But, when I was reading and meditating on Psalm 63, I began longing for those days. Those days when we had 1 tv in the house, the shows were wholesome and we watched as a family. Those days when seeing an altar full of people wasn’t unusual. Those days when shouting at church was the norm. Those days. The days when we were very aware of God’s work in our lives, when we slowed down enough to worship Him fully. I remember waking up on Sunday mornings to a huge breakfast and finding my Dad in the living room studying his Sunday School lesson before church. I remember Saturday Nights included polishing our shoes for church, making sure the car was clean. I remember all of us riding to church together and singing on the way.
We find David, in the 63rd Psalm, hiding in the desert. His heart longs to worship God in the sanctuary, to see His power in glory played out in worship. I’ve found myself in something of a desert lately. I am not in fear for my life. I have no real needs, other than the heartbeat of my heart, which is one that longs to see people crying out to God in the way we used to. Worshipping Him with our whole hearts, our hands lifted, our voices singing His praise. We look around and wonder where He is in the midst of the trials in our nation. We can find Him exactly where we left Him: out of our schools, out of our homes, and out of our lives. He is where we have relegated Him to: that single hour of the day on Sunday morning. We don’t have time for Sunday School, we don’t have time for Sunday night or Wednesday night service, and we don’t have time to spend in His Word. And yet we wonder why we don’t see Him healing our nation. We can find examples of this same sort of behavior over and over again in the Old Testament. Israel was a fickle nation, many times over we see Israel forget the one true God, get into trouble, call out for His help, be rescued by His loving kindness, and again wander away from Him. We should all pray that we don’t continue to “go through the motions” of worship as our hearts wander far from our God until we actually get into the kind of trouble that Israel found so easily.
How do we avoid the same mistakes the Bible spends pages warning us of? The first verse that pops into our head is usually 2 Chronicles 7:14. If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. There’s a lot of instruction in that verse, some of which is harder to do than others. We don’t mind praying, but it’s harder to humble ourselves, seek Him, and turn from any sinful ways we might be partaking in. We want the fix without the work. Humbling ourselves requires acknowledging, really acknowledging, exactly how powerless we are. Seeking God isn’t just for unbelievers. We should be spending time every day in prayer, and in the Word. Ideally, more than once a day. And that whole turning from our wicked ways thing… that seems like something we shouldn’t have to do, right? I mean, we’re Christians. We’re already saved. Surely, we aren’t doing anything wicked. And yet, we all sin, every single day, denying that is impossible (1 John 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”)
Today is November 1st. It’s that time of year when we begin to reflect on our lives. As Thanksgiving approaches, if we take time to slow down from the insanity of the holiday season, we usually at least acknowledge some of God’s Blessings on our lives. This year, as we reflect on everything good in our lives, we should take a moment to remember from whom those blessings come. What should our response be to the gratitude we feel in our heart? On social media, people will begin listing all the things they’re thankful for. It’s interesting to watch. Suddenly, the calendar flips and we’re very thankful people. Take a moment and consider how you are showing your thankfulness. Are you serving our Lord fully? Have you surrendered every part of your life to Him? It’s not an easy thing to do, or to continue to do. I find myself often trying to pick a part of my life back up and do as I please with it. Our time is possibly the hardest thing to surrender. We have things we want to do. But, none of our time is really ours, is it? If, like the old hymn says: “Jesus paid it all… all to Him I owe” nothing we have is truly ours. There is nothing good in me, of that I am sure. Anything good in me is Christ, and for that I will serve Him happily all my days.
A common beginning to public testimony is, “I just want to say I love the Lord…” Let’s remember that love… is a verb. A verb signifies action. He is worth of any and everything we could ever do for Him.
