Day 10: "A Heart of Worship"

Welcome back readers & WELCOME to new readers!! Today is DAY 10 on our journey through the book: A Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? by Pastor Rick Warren.

I am in COMPLETE AWE of how God works in our lives. The WORK of SURRENDER I did this morning was work that I thought I already did. It was DEEP rooted. DEEP. As I've been writing these blog posts...I tend to look forward to the next day and what the topic will be & I didn't yesterday.

Let me tell you somethin'! If you ASK the Good Lord to ENTER into your life...If you ASK Him to SHINE LIGHT on situations... If you ASK him to BLESS you...HE WILL DO IT....and you better be ready. I can't really explain it. Let me just tell you that he is REVEALING MORE to me the second time around with this book, than he did the first time. He is not only telling me now....He is MOVING me. He is MAKING me move. I mean it when I say this book is LIFE-CHANGING.

The first line in this chapter: "The heart of worship is surrender." Most of us look at a word like surrender as weakness. I feel like society as a whole goes through a kabillions (prob not a word) of BAND-AIDS to cover up the hurt and the weaknesses that we DON'T WANT TO SURRENDER. I am telling you now...there is SOMETHING (& maybe several things) you have to SURRENDER to God to get closer to Him & break the devil's hold on your life...AND that something or THINGS you probably don't want to touch, or think about, or don't want to let back in. You WANT to sweep them under the rug. ASK GOD to clean you out & take the devil's hold off of you. He will do it in a loving way & he will place the right people in you life to HELP you do it. Be prepared for potential exhaustion. Be prepared for a LIFT in SPIRIT.

He spoke a stripped down, raw & honest TRUTH to me last night & this morning he took the BURDEN I had been carrying (that I thought I had released) from me. Just like that. He just took the devil's hold & BROKE it. BROKE IT! It is GONE. He revealed a hold on me I didn't KNOW was there, made me aware, made me affirm it, & has blessed me.

As you go through this chapter & you learn about Paul & you read the words he preached to people & how he URGED them to surrender, The Spirit will start to stir. He didn't go into great detail. He just asks us to do it. The first time I read this book I didn't "GET IT." I am intrigued by Paul. I got the importance. I got the NEED to do it, but I didn't understand it at the level I NEEDED to understand it. Paul experienced God's GRACE & SUPREME VISION regularly, BUT you can't really EXPLAIN that to people in a way they will understand. What I "GET" now is: You have to have FAITH. If you have faith...INVITE GOD IN. If you invite God in he will SHOW you. He will HELP you SURRENDER & then he will cause you to continually SURRENDER. Doing work on you gives GLORY to God & SAVES you.

Warren writes: "There are three barriers that block our total surrender to God: fear, pride, and confusion."

5 areas to FOCUS on today:

1) "Can I trust God?" Pastor Warren sums this up: "You won't surrender to God unless you trust him, but you can't trust him until you know him better....The more you realize how much God loves you the easier surrender becomes." I had a conversation with someone once about how to find Jesus in some of the REALLY difficult moments: a painful disease, a rape, a beating. How do people find TRUST in God in experiences like that? We are all born with The Spirit inside us. EVEN IF YOU ARE MAD AT GOD...ASK Him to show you where he was & He will. He WILL NOT give us ANYTHING we can't handle & his PLAN for you transcends that pain.

2) "Admitting our limitations." "We don't want to admit that we're just creatures and not in charge of everything...That desire - to have complete control - is the cause of so much stress in our lives." Well put Pastor Rick! Yeah...I was wound up in all of that like a lot of others...still am in some areas. I believe now....that he wants to take care of the HARD & icky stuff. RELEASE it to him. Don't get me wrong. We have to DO WORK, but we don't need to CREATE unnecessary work.

3) "What it means to surrender." This one gets deep. EVERYONE needs to read it. I'll try and keep it short. Pastor Rick's words: "Surrendering to God is not passive resignation, fatalism, or an excuse for laziness. It is not accepting the status quo. It may mean the exact opposite: sacrificing your life or suffering in order to change what needs to be changed. God often calls surrendered people to do battle on his behalf. Surrendering is not for cowards or doormats." AMEN! It ain't easy folks & it ain't for sissies & you will NEED God's GRACE to keep you moving. The Bible says, "Surrender yourself to the Lord, and wait patiently for him." I KNOW I've begun this process. There is work I have to do & he is STRIPPING my EGO away from it. It is NOT ABOUT ME. It is about doing HIS work.

One more thing from the book that spoke to me was when Pastor Warren discussed the most difficult area of surrender, which is this thought: "'I want to live for God but I also want to earn enough money to live comfortably and retire someday.'" If you are SURRENDERING...NOTHING competes with God. This was TOUGH for me, but I have AMAZING FAITH that He will PROVIDE everything I need & WHEN we need it & I know that all of our solutions are right in front of us...it's just like putting a puzzle together.

4) "The blessing of surrender." Here is what you will experience: PEACE...(Don't we all want some peace.) Then...FREEDOM. He's talkin' freedom from the binding ties the devil & his army uses. Lastly, "you experience God's power in your life." & yes you do. "Surrendered people are the one's God uses." Examples would be: Mother Mary, Paul, Joseph, Noah, Joshua....

5) "The best way to live." How we live, what we do, what we allow, how we react...is ALL our responsibility. We have to OWN that & stop BLAMING everyone else. In this section we are URGED to give it ALL to The Holy Trinity. We have to PRACTICE this because we will have to continually surrender & sometimes it will be easier than others. Paul said: "I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him who infused inner strength into me, that is, I am self-sufficient in Christ's sufficiency." 

Today's "Point to Ponder: The heart of worship is surrender."

Daily Verse: "Surrender yoru whole being to him to be used for righteous purposes. " Romans 6:13B (TEV)

Daily Question: "What area of my life am I holding back from God?"

From my journal: I'm trying to control it and fix it and fix people and fix myself and get better and do better and make more money. I will give it all to him and even talk to Kyle (my husband) about it too. I know this will be hard and will have to be done over and over again, but I will!

Buck Up Baby & RIDE with Jesus! Nope...won't be easy, BUT will be worth it! God Bless!!

Day 9: "What Makes God Smile?"

Welcome returning & new readers. We are on Day 9 as we continue our journey through the book: The Purpose Driven Life: What On Earth Am I Here For? by Pastor Rick Warren .

Day 9: "What makes God smile?"

"Point to Ponder: God smiles when I trust him."

Daily Verse: "The Lord is pleased with those who worship him and trust his love." Psalm 147:11 (CEV)

Daily Question: "Since God knows what is best, in what areas of my life do I need to trust him the most?"

What I wrote in my journal after reading the first time around: Relationships with family, friends, and acquaintances. He will guide me in ways to console, love, and forgive and will condition the hearts of those in just the right way needed.

Building/Having a place to live. He will provide & shine light on everything necessary to make that happen.

This is a DEEP chapter & the person from the Bible that Pastor Warren chose to EXPLAIN this chapter is NOAH.

From the first page of this chapter: "In Noah's day, the entire world had become morally bankrupt. Everyone lived for their own pleasure, not God's. God couldn't find anyone on earth interested in pleasing him, so he was grieved and regretted making man. God became so disgusted with the human race that he considered wiping it out. But there was one man who made God smile. The bible says, 'Noah was a pleasure to the Lord.'"

From Noah's experience we ALL can learn 5 ACTS OF WORSHIP:

1) "God smiles when we love him supremely."Noah loved God more than ANYTHING else in the world. He wants a relationship with us & that kind!! I am by no means an expert at the Bible, but as I try to LEARN & wrap my head around the word It seems to me that He sent his son, the way he sent him for a VERY precise reason. Jesus walked the walk. He did the tough things. He was ridiculed, beat, cursed, shunned, or questioned his ENTIRE life here on earth...BUT the LIGHT of GOD & the LIGHT in their followers urged him onward. Even as I work through my emotions from day to day I REALize how there are SO many different KINDS of ANGER....of HAPPINESS...of LOSS...of STRUGGLE...of PAIN...of TRUST...of LOVE... I really believe that Jesus experienced ALL of it & sits at the right hand of the Father to HELP him understand our sin here on earth. Jesus was FAITHFUL & God FULLY understands the INTENSE strugGLE we all face & Jesus said to him on that cross: "Forgive them Father. They know not what they do." Luke 23:34 (KJV) & God TRUSTED him & in his FINAL dying breath...SAVED AN ENTIRE WORLD FULL OF SINNERS. That to me...is PROOF that he WANTS a relationship with us & that he loves us & he will TRUST us, if we talk to him.


2)"God smiles when you trust him completely." Noah trusted God when it didn't make sense. The book discusses the 3 main issues Noah faced:

1. "Noah had never seen rain, because prior to the Flood, God irrigated the earth from the ground up."
2. He lived in the middle of dry land hundreds of miles from ANY large body of water.
3. He had to figure out how to round up ALL the animals.

BUT...he did it...without a complaint.

3) "God smiles when we obey him wholeheartedly." Boy...do I have to work on this one & is he ever lettin' me know it! Noah followed ever single direction God gave him...down to the last detail...without question. The book says: "That means doing whatever God asks without reservation or hesitation." THIS IS HARD. HARD...I TELL YOU! This means...not taking the time to pray about it...not working it through in your head...not figuring out the right time....SIGH...INSTANTLY acting... Pastor Warren also says: "Instant obedience will teach you more about God than a lifetime of Bible discussions."

4) "God smiles when we praise and thank him continually." Noah praised God before, during, and after his journey on the Ark. I praise God CONTINUALLY in private, BUT now I am working on CONTINUALLY praising him in PUBLIC.

5) "God smiles when we use our abilities." This part of the book is SUCH a good description of this act of worship! Once Noah completed his journey God said: "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth...Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything." Genesis 9:1-3  He wanted them to LIVE. There is not a thing on earth that we can not give to him in worship....washing dishes, caring for livestock, cooking dinner, painting with our children, building a business, selling a product or service, singing a song, enjoying the view......the list could go on for the rest of our lives.

Whew! It's A LOT to take in & I have LOTS of work to do!! Buck UP Baby and Ride with Jesus! He will URGE you to ride in the rain & the hail & the EXTREME wind & ASK you to PERSEVERE through it all & TRUST that he is taking you to a MUCH greener pasture. IT IS NOT EASY, BUT DON'T BE A SISSY!!

Day 8: "Planned For God's Pleasure"

Welcome readers!! For new readers we are going through Rick Warren's: A Purpose Driven Life: What On Earth Am I Here For? We are going through a chapter each day. I'm laying out how I have applied, am applying, OR try to apply these principles in my life. I've read the book through once & now am spending a little time with each chapter.

Here are the topics of discussion for today:

Day 8: "Planned for God's Pleasure"

"Point to Ponder: I was planned for God's pleasure."

Daily Verse: "The Lord takes pleasure in his people." Psalm 149:4A (TEV)

Daily Question: "What common task could I start doing as if I were doing it directly for Jesus?"

What I wrote in my journal the first day of reading the chapter: Talking to Jesus when I start a new task or project. Thank him for the opportunity. Ask him to bless it. Ask him to protect me & light my path.

Common Task: Shower....I've now added washing dishes.

This is a VERY important chapter because it goes into DEEP discussion about WORSHIP: what it means to God, the different ways we can worship, how to offer our routine daily living to God as worship...and SO much more.

This may seem like an easy chapter, but let me tell you...(at least for me) the number one thing that came rising up was my EGO. This is why I told you a few chapters ago...that EGO was one of the things I struggle with the most & would venture to believe most others do to. KNOW THIS: EGO IS UNGODLY. Most of us are SO chalked full of EGO...it will probably take a LIFETIME to put it to the side. We really think we are THAT important that we have the ability to FIX everything & that OUR way of thinking is the right way & only way.

I have said it before & I will say it again. I HATE housework. I feel like I am lacking in the ability to create a system that works for me. I WILL figure it out & I have improved (although my husband may beg to differ). When the chapter asked me to choose an everyday activity...I chose shower & I LOVE showers..and (brace yourself) UNFORTUNATELY I don't get one EVERY day. SO...I thought what if I make it a daily point to do it directly for Jesus? Here's the thing...He's already got that...maybe not daily. But I pray and have Jesus time when I have shower time. So then my thoughts went to doing dishes..................I REALLY don't like doing them. I can't wait until I have a dishwasher again. I mean...I don't like them sitting there, but I don't like to do them either. (For the record...I KNOW how silly this sounds. It's gotta be done for crying out loud!!) Anyways....I thought to myself...I CAN'T GIVE THAT TO GOD! Why would I give him something I don't like? GUYS...that is my ego, trying to control & justify what is and is not good enough to give to God. HE WANTS IT ALL!!! So...long story short...if you are ever over & I'm washing dishes...you will probably here me singing "Give GLORY to God, Give GLORY to God" OR "Jesus Loves Me."

This chapter says: "Bringing enjoyment to God, living for his pleasure, is the first purpose of your life. When you FULLY understand this truth, you will never again have a problem with feeling insignificant." I can tell you I do not FULLY grasp this yet & really feel like I'm a long way from it. Here is something I want you ALL to think on. It is a lot to think about and I'm not going to discuss it within this blog post. It could get one all its own. GUILT, EGO, & PRIDE are not from God & quite frankly...I'd like them to GO TO HELL & STAY THERE. They jack with your everything. They STOP us from GRASPING exactly what this chapter says. "You are a child of God, and you bring pleasure to God like nothing else he has ever created." Read that line about five more times.

You will STRUGGLE (just like I do) once you pass this chapter & go on to apply other things. Guilt says we are not worthy & don't deserve to be THAT special. Ego says we have to accomplish these things & act this way & then I will be fit to be that special, OR it may say I am active in the community, I go to church every Sunday, & I love Jesus. I'm giving him enough glory. I'm doing my part. Pride will STOP us from HUMBLING ourselves before God & before others...& could make it really hard to give God all the glory.

I didn't even want to type the last paragraph, BUT I want everyone to understand what I understand. Now wipe that train of thinking from your thoughts, b/c it will do you NO good.

Repeat this again...as many times as you need to: "You are a child of God, and you bring pleasure to God like nothing else he has ever created." OWN that! BE that...and REMIND ME to be that too!

GOD IS SO GOOD & wants us to drop all that crap where we stand, but will LOVE us through figuring out how.

I didn't feel like writing this blog today. This book MAKES you do the work & I was feeling pretty exhausted today. God knows I'm not perfect....even though I really want to be & he wants me to use my imperfections to help others...even if I don't FEEL like it all the time. BUT...We've all gotta BUCK UP BABY & RIDE WITH JESUS! He did a lot of things he didn't feel like doing too.

God Bless!