30 Days of Prayer: Pray for a Heart of Praise and Worship (Day 8) - Be Whole, Mom

Do you question God’s goodness in your life?  Do you love Him and go to church, but do you really struggle with handing over the reigns to the little AND big things in your life?  It’s time to tear apart the veil and see our Abba for who He really is, and let praise and worship pour out of your soul!

Welcome back to day 8 of the 30 Days of Prayer series!  If you’ve been with me every day, I applaud you!  Yesterday’s post was not light reading, but it was jam packed with necessary understanding and Truth to help unveil our deceitful enemy and not be caught ignorant of his schemes.

Today we get to lift the veil even more to see our Heavenly Abba, Yahweh for all that He is (well, as much as I can reasonably address in a post…the book is in the works!).

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” ~ Mark 12: 30

It wasn’t very long ago that I broke through some major internal walls that were blocking me from seeing the fullness of God’s glory.  The Spirit has had me on quite a journey through the wilderness teaching me these many many lessons about our Abba.

When the Lord told us to get out of the military, sell all of our possessions, and follow Him, I had no idea what we were in for!  We obeyed, acted, and He has not stopped providing for our every need.

In the process though, He has also repeatedly addressed and corrected misunderstandings and untruths we had in our heart about Him, His goodness, His character, and His love.  We also did not understand ourselves in Light of Him and what He did on the cross for us in Christ.

Just as when I had to learn to get out of God’s way if I wanted Him to work on my husband (more on that story here), I had to learn how to actually step into working on myself WITH God’s help so that the fruit of self-control and self-discipline could mature.

It has NOT been an easy journey, but I would not change it for the world.

…I am the LORD your God, and that there is no other….” ~ Joel 2: 27

Sometimes we Know OF God, but do not yet fully know Him

Many of us have God in our mind and know of Him, but the intimacy of the deepest parts of relationship, trusting one another no matter what because we know the character of our spouse, has not been fostered through extending opportunity for Him to be proven faithful.

I have this issue with one of my daughter’s quite often.  She is exactly like her parents: control freak.  I can’t blame her; she comes by it naturally ::wink wink::

Just the other day we had yet another big talk about her lack of trust in us or others.  Often what happens is that she will want something or to do something and instead of ask the question with a heart that is open to receiving a yes, no, or maybe because she knows that we love her, are good parents, and will choose what is ultimately best, she is double-minded.

She asks with either a heart that says, “I know you’re just going to say ‘no’, because you always do,” or “I’m throwing myself off of a cliff to ask this because if I don’t get it I will just DIE so my entire life depends on the answer being yes and I don’t know how I will go on if I don’t get this!! AHHHH” kind of anxiety.  (adolescence is grand….)

It has been interesting to navigate, because I see SO many parallels to how we often act with God!  Now, my husband and I are NOT perfect parents, are not always operating from a place of love, and DO make mistakes, yet we are still able to bless her with good things quite often.

God, however, IS good, IS perfect, IS ALWAYS loving, and NEVER changes!

Yet, how often do we view Him as though these attributes of His are not true?

He wants us to mature past the point of adolescence, but in order to do so we must do what we want our children to do; practice self-control and trust.

And, unlike our children, we have every reason in the entire world to extend trust to our Abba, because He is who He says He is.

Who is I Am?

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” ~ Rev. 22:13

For millennia our Abba has been diligently working to help us to separate Him from the gods that others worship, false gods of the mind at best and demons at worst.  Every other one of these gods were detached from humanity, uncaring about the well-being of people, cared only about themselves and what they wanted, and caused great suffering and craze within those who worshipped them (you can see references to these all throughout the Old Testament).

Many of the gods were angry and aggressive with the people, and the people did horrendous things to appease them including child sacrifice (Lev. 18: 21) and cutting themselves to draw blood (1 Kings 18: 28).  Truly, these were demons, who always seek to mimic the Truth with a lie.

Our Abba, however, is not like these gods.

He is a God of love, compassion, gentility, kindness, patience, peace, provision, self-restraint, self-sacrifice, and so much more.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” ~ John 3: 16

I think so often many of us become so accustomed to the names of our God and what we hear about Him that we take it for granted.  We don’t understand the alternatives.  Every other religion proclaims a person is saved through their works, not their faith, even if imperfect and flawed.

It is hard to grasp in its fullness how amazing our Abba truly is.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” ~ Romans 8: 38-39

While we in our finite, human form can only hold so many contrasting realities in our minds for so long, our Abba is the fullness of these things.

Loving AND just.

Gracious AND the Good Judge.

Merciful AND firm.

Compassionate AND ready to rebuke.

Protector and provider for His beloved Bride, the Body, AND fierce to defend His Name.

…and so much more.

Our God is a God of Love.

It is far too easy to interpret God through the lens of our experiences and mind chatter, rather than on who He says He is in the Word.  When we do this it is no different than when our children tell us we are mean, “never let [them] do anything,” or whatever else they want to sling our way when they don’t get their way.

But, our Abba wants more for us.  He wants us to be mature in mind (1 Cor. 14: 20), so that we may come to know the fullness of His love:

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!  Amen.” ~ Eph. 3: 17-21

Knowing Him More and More Naturally Brings Worship

Praise the Lord!

Praise God in his sanctuary;

praise him in his mighty heavens!

Praise him for his mighty deeds;

praise him according to his excellent greatness!

Praise him with trumpet sound;

praise him with lute and harp!

Praise him with tambourine and dance;

praise him with strings and pipe!

Praise him with sounding cymbals;

praise him with loud clashing cymbals!

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!

Praise the Lord!” ~ Psalm 150

When we come to know a deeper revelation of the goodness of our Abba, praise and worship naturally flow from our mouths.  Each opportunity that we face where we stand firmly in His goodness and pray to Him for provision, He is given another time to reveal Himself to us once more.  And, He meets our needs.

When these things happen we naturally pour out praise for Him!  We thank Him for the amazing provision He has again done for us.  Trust and peace in His character ALWAYS brings about praise for Him in His fullness.

Though God may not always do things the way we want, when we want, He is sure to ensure that His way is BEST.  And, His timing is ALWAYS best.

My salvation and my honor depend on God;

he is my mighty rock, my refuge.

Trust in him at all times, you people;

pour out your hearts to him,

for God is our refuge.” ~ Psalm 62: 7-8

Let Worship and Praise be Always on My Lips, Abba

May we dig into the Word and come to know the fullness of WHO our Abba says that He is, rather than depend on the words of man to rightfully declare Him in His fullness.  His Word IS the solid Truth for whom He is and ALL that He is.

And, honestly, the search to know Him more and more will never cease this side of Heaven.

Abba, help me to know You in Your fullness.  You are so great to me that I cannot even fathom.  Help me to trust You at all times and to lean into the discomfort when You lead me into new territories that You want to show me how good You are.  Strengthen me as I lean into You.  Speak Your Truth to me at all times.  Help me to come to a deeper understanding of Your greatness that I may be mature and of sound-mind.  I love You more than anything.  Help everything that I am come to a realization of everything that You are.  In the name of Your Son, Jesus, I ask these things.  Amen.

Related: 31 Scriptures to Encourage a Righteous Fear of God 

Keep drawing closer to Him.  Trust Him at all times.  Listen to the chatter of your mind to determine if your thoughts are in accord with His goodness.  And then be ready to renew your mind with the Truth as the lies are exposed.

He is with you, sweet sister.  Keep walking.

Shalom.

Was this post an encouragement to you today?  Share and comment below.  Your comments mean the world to me, encouraging me immensely, and help me to push onward in this work that the Lord has called me to do.