Imagine with me, if you will, that
the next time you go to God for a time of worship that He interrupts you, before
you can begin, and tells you to take out two sheets of notebook paper. Suppose that He instructs you to take
the first sheet of paper and write down every request you can think of. Write down every need. Every desire. Every dream you are still waiting to be fulfilled. You quickly find yourself scribbling frantically
on line after line, hoping that you don’t forget anything. New car. Promotion on the job with a
nice pay raise. Supernatural
weight loss. Healing of a loved one.
“Whatever your heart can dream to ask”, God says, “ask for it.”
A moment or two later, you’ve filled
the sheet of paper. You glance
over it again to make sure it is complete. “Surely”, you begin to ponder, “the Lord wants this list so
that He can fulfill it.”
You’re ready to hand it in, but the
Lord interrupts again, and instructs to you take out the second sheet of
paper. His next statement is clear:
“Now, write down every thing you are grateful for.” Suddenly, your mind goes
blank. You begin to write a few lines. You’re thankful for your parents. Your pastor. Your spouse. Your
salvation…
Your scribbling doesn’t seem to be
as frantic as before. The sheet of
paper isn’t even half-way complete, so you start writing bigger, hoping to take
up more space. Your mind is
racing. “What else am I grateful
for?”
Time’s up. God reaches for the paper and you
reluctantly hand them over. God folds
them up and slides them into His pocket.
And then as quickly as He appeared, He is gone.
Pretty crazy right? I mean, really, God wouldn’t do that.
That’s just silly. But, silly or
not, it’s a pretty accurate indicator of the condition of your heart. As a matter of fact, I asked a group of
worship-leaders-in-training to do the same thing last year. I had them make a list of all of the
things that they were thankful for in that moment. Some had ten things.
Some had fifty. But none of
them were quick to begin. They all
had to stop and think for a minute before they began to write. When they were done, I asked them to
share their “Grateful List” with the group. And after each one shared their list, in turn, I presented
this simple phrase that I believe God spoke to me several years ago: “You
cannot worship God and be ungrateful at the same time. It is virtually impossible.”
What exactly does that mean? It
means that when we are truly worshipping God, we are not taking Him a list of
wants or desires. When we are truly
worshipping God, we are not complaining about the things that we don’t have or
about the things we want to see changed.
When we are truly worshipping God, our full attention is on Him. His goodness. His mercy. His unfailing love. And if our attention isn’t on that, then we’re not really,
truly worshipping. We may be
singing a song. Or saying a
prayer. Or lifting our hands. But worship? No, worship comes from the
heart of those who are grateful.
So, today, if God would ask…what’s
on your list?
No comments:
Post a Comment