Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Worship the Lord . . .in all situations!

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil. May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-24)
It's a challenge to rejoice when faced with obstacles in life. Daily we are faced with circumstances and challenges that we would rather not face. . . but this is life! What seperates a believer from a non-believer is how we handle adversity. Is God not whom we claim Him to be? Is He not Creator of all things? Is He not capable of getting us through various bumps along the way? In whom do we put our trust anyway? Why is it that we shout out loud when things are going good and worship with such intensity yet when challenges arise we want to crawl into a hole and whimper in frustration and weakness? Oh, how I pray that I will be more like Job . . .
At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said:“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;may the name of the Lord be praised.” (Job 1:20)
Job's first thought when he lost it all was to get up and worship the Lord . . . falling to his knees honoring the Source of all he had obtained. This passage always amazes me every time I read it. This is so challenging for us all. We must be so in tune to the Spirit of God that we see where challenges come from and through it all, worship the Lord. We must not allow our circumstances to quench the Spirit . Paul reminds us to test all things and to hold on to what is good.
God IS good . . . through it all! We must be reminded to worship the Lord in all situations!

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God still reigns!