More than a Feeling
I went to a prayer night at my friend's church tonight. I was expecting it to be pretty unfamiliar to me...and it was. But, it didn't really bother me. It was just a different way of worshipping than I had grown up with. More charismatic. More open.As I was standing there worshipping, I was wanting so much to have one of those moments where you're just so overwhelmed but God's Spirit...to have a moment of being so filled with the spirit that would leave me so high afterward. But, nothing was really happening. I was just worshipping normally -- nothing supernatural FEELING like it was happening.
So, I was wondering why and still expecting God to work in me somehow when he said something to me. Feelings. (I just realized now that the word I emphasized above was 'feeling' and it totally matches. Cool.) I was basing my worship to God on how I was feeling about it. I was longing for something empowering to happen so that I could feel it...and get that feeling during and after. I don't think there is anything wrong with wanting the feeling because it is an incredible feeling from God that is a mixture of being humbled, overwhelmed by His Spirit, quenched and revived by his power, consumed by His fire, etc. But my reason for wanting something to happen can't be primarily because of the feeling. How I worship and interceed is not for MY pleasure, it is for God's pleasure. I please Him, serve Him, advance His kingdom, and want Him to work in me and through me.
My adequacy of worship should not be based on whether I'm feeling empowered or not. Sometimes God stirrs things up in my heart more than others. Sometimes I will cry, sometimes I won't. Sometimes I won't even feel like worshipping. But the truth is that EVERY time I worship God through song or through prayer or whatever, I am waging war for his kingdom. "The weapons that we fight with are not of this world. On the contrary, they have devine power to demolish strongholds." Sometimes it will feel like it more than others but it is not based on that feeling. Every worship song or prayer is intercession for His kingdom whether I feel it or not.
It is kind of a bad thing when the feeling that God gives me when I'm being empowered or overwhelmed becomes a craving...a craving for my pleasure and not for God's.
God calls me to worship him with my whole heart no matter how I feel.
1 Cor 10:7 "You are looking only on the surface of things. If anyone is confident that he belongs to Christ, he should consider again that we belong to Christ just as much as he."
I read that this morning and it kind of stood out to me, but I didn't realize why. I do now. Focussing on my feelings is looking only at the surface of things. Our service to God is not based on the things of the surface, nor is it comparable to others and the work they are doing for the Lord. "...we belong to Christ just as much as he..." There is no comparison; neither is anything based on feelings.
posted by Amy @ 10:15 a.m.
1 Comments:
Thanks so much Ames. You are so amazing, and in touch with God so powerfully! You mean everything to me, and thank you for explaining this. And teaching me. Love you!
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