Day of Praise

Tues, 01/29/19, "Day of Praise"

"I rebuked the officials and asked them, 'Why is the house of God neglected?'" - Nehemiah 13:11

When God calls us to worship Him in the Ten Commandments, the book of Leviticus, and the Psalms, it's because God has ordained that blessings would flow to us from Him when we do.
And, therefore it makes sense, that when we neglect to worship, as today's verse calls us to consider, then we miss out on the blessings that God would give.

Furthermore, neglect of worship, as Joyce Meyer talks about in her book, "Knowing God Intimately," isn't just not going to worship. Neglect of worship is also having your body in a sanctuary while your mind is miles away, thinking about mowing the lawn or anything else that is not God and his wonderful grace.

The reason this is such a big deal is because God has chosen to work through the spoken Gospel of his sacrificial love, along with the Gospel ministries of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion, to tell us again and again what we regularly tend to forget, namely that God and His grace are the power by which we have the life for which we always yearn.

And when we forget that God and His grace are our power, we start, what is called, striving. Striving is simply living out of your own limited strength instead of living out of the strength of the Holy Spirit and the power of Jesus Christ.

And striving makes us tired. Weary. Bone tired. Weary-existence tired. So that we become irritable. And snappy. And very unpleasant to be around.

And even if you say that you're not irritable and weary when you don't worship God, then I'd still ask you if you're joyful.

Once when I wrote a devotion, "The joy of the Lord is my strength," I was flooded with replies and requests for prayers, asking for more of that strength. We are all honored to pray for each other to be sure. Honored beyond measure.

But please remember this, the "joy of the Lord" that is your strength is that God loves to be with you. It is God's joy to be with you. And God has ordained that the worship of God is the place where we are guaranteed to be reminded of that truth that "It is God's joy to be with you."

So, hearing that truth again in worship, AND BELIEVING THAT IT'S TRUE, we leave worship strengthened to face the world and all that comes with it.

The two verses go hand in hand. "The joy of the Lord is your strength" (Nehemiah 8:10), and today's verse "Why is the house of God neglected?" (Nehemiah 13:11).

Dear God, thank you for loving us as you do so wondrously through your Son, Jesus, by the person and power of your Holy Spirit. Thank you for not just telling us like it is, but also helping us to understand why you command the things that you do. Thank you for filling your commands with blessings that become ours when we trust you, follow you, and do what you call us to do in the strength of Holy Spirit. Thank you, specifically, for the gift of worship where you remind us again and again that it is your joy to be with us and that your presence with us is our strength. Increase our hunger to worship you as only you can so that our strength and joy in you might abound more and more each day. To you be praise and honor and glory, the One True God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen.

Praise God!