March 29, 2010

Worship is Dangerous

Read: Psalm 43

What is worship? It's our response to God's Love. It's working out our love for Him.

Since we love God, that means we want to spend time with Him; but you know, I've decided that it's pretty dangerous to spend time with God. It's dangerous because it means spending time with the One who never changes – Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and always. It's dangerous because God's not satisfied with leaving us alone. He wants us to become just what He created us to be, and He'll keep pushing and pulling and chastening and blessing us until that's what happens.

Oh, and even though that's what we always say we want – that we want to be what God has created us to be – I know that it's much easier to say that than to mean it.

What if God wants me to be something that I don't think I'll like? Frankly, that's much more likely than the other way around. Moses wasn't much interested in the job offer he got at the burning bush. Jeremiah had his doubts. Jonah turned the job down cold.

So what would make me think that I'd like God's offer any better than they did? Nothing, really, and that's why I say spending time with Him is dangerous. It's where I want to be, but it's bound to result in what I should do instead of what I want to do, in what I should be instead of what I want to be.

Go back and reread the story we used as the introduction to this year's book. You'll find two people, Daniel and the narrator, who both spent time with God, who both ended up changed in ways they wouldn't have anticipated, but neither of whom would trade that change for their original plans.


Prayer: Father, give me the courage to act on the trust I have in You. Help me to remember that what you want for me is always far better than what I think I want for myself, and that Joy beyond happiness is what awaits me. May Christ live in me the life you have chosen for me. Amen.

Charlie van Becelaere