Where did you learn to worship?

I grew up in a church where I learned to sing, listen to teaching, and join with others in the congregation for responsive readings, but I didn’t learn to worship, pray, or have relationship with Christ. I learned those things somewhere else.

At church on Sunday I had a great time worshipping. It left me thinking about where I learned to truly worship God. Worship isn’t about music and singing, although those can be a part of it. It is about living a life where we share with others. I am very thankful for Voice of Calvary, an interracial church and ministry I was a part of in Jackson, Mississippi. It was a place where I learned to be deeply passionate about serving others and being authentic in musical worship. I was blessed to attend a tremendous missions conference in Urbana, Illinois. It was where my heart for others, especially those who are needy or who are from cultures other than my own developed. My life was changed as I served as a summer camp leader under Tim Bigelow, Dave Lee, and Woody Franzen’s direction where I learned to pour my life out to others and love with all I have.

Have you learned how to worship? Have you learned to live a life where you share with others by putting your hands, feet, mind, heart, words, and actions into motion? Have you learned to be passionate, to serve, to have a heart for others, to pour out your life, and to love with all you have? Is there someone you can say thank you to for teaching you or leaving an example that helped you learn to worship? What a blessing it is to love God so deeply that I desire to worship him more than anything else in life!

Seeing God’s hand in the desires of the heart

A few months ago I read a book that impacted me more than anything else I have read in the last couple years. The book is called God on Mute, and it is about unanswered prayer and naked prayer. It is about being honest with God in a raw and deeply honest way. The book moved me, but also deeply grieved me because of all the unanswered prayer I see in my life and how it left me wrestling through questions about how God was working in my life and how he expressed his love to me because I obviously wasn’t understanding his communication. It left me questioning the below scripture from the Psalms.

Psalm 37:4-5 says:
Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this.

Recently the short term contract I was working at came to an end and I was forced to look for a new job. This is something I have had to do several times over the last three years and it has been a hard process for me. Through that process an opportunity came my way that was very unexpected and I am now working at a new permanent job. I will be honest, I didn’t sit down and have that conversation with God about what I would really want in a job if I could have my deepest desires. I didn’t share my heart with him. I didn’t even have the faith to hope for a permanent job. After years of feeling like God had not heard me, did not want me to be where I hoped, and being in places where doors didn’t open for me I was at a point of believing that my heart, hopes, and desires must be wrong and I was somehow not in right relationship with God or not delighting, committing to, and trusting him.

I am still coming to understand exactly where God has placed me with this new job. The more I learn about what I have been asked to do the more excited I get about it. I know a lot of it is my attitude and perceptions of the situation, but God is showing me so many things. I am in a job where the focus of what I do is to give to and serve other people. What I do is all about others and helping them. I am in a place where there has been brokenness, doubt, pain, and loss. Part of my job will be to redeem that and rebuild. I have been brought in to encourage, uplift, support, and build enthusiasm. One of my key roles will be to cast vision to others, and yesterday I was asked to mentor two people. My role with them is to do everything in my power to equip, encourage, and empower them to make them shine at what they do so they can provide the best service to others.

Do you share the desires of your heart with God? Do you openly express your heart, passions, and wants to God? Have you given up hope that God will give you the desires of your heart? Maybe God is preparing you, preparing the place for you, and working to bring everything together in the right timing. He knows you better than you know yourself. He knows what your deepest desires and passions are, and he sees every gift and skill you have. He wants you to use those. He wants you to be a in place where you can be passionate, excited, and make a difference in this world, but he also wants you to know your heart and desires enough to express them to him. I challenge you to keep hoping, keep dreaming, and most of all keep praying that he will lead you to a place where the desires of you heart align with his and can be put to the greatest use to bring his kingdom glory.