Before I got busy being a Christian, being in ministry, working full-time, I was a full-time worshiper and a follower of Christ. I miss those times, I miss spending my whole day on Jesus, but more importantly He misses me and He misses you if you’ve left off seeking Him first before all else.
Life has a way of robbing us of our relationships if we don’t guard them.Of all my relationships my relationship with Jesus is most precious, yet I have not guarded it lately. So, as I determine within my heart to make God first again, not just in word but in deed and especially in my time and in my heart I am refocusing my life and my blog around these very truths. I believe it will help not only me but my readers and followers focus on intimacy with Jesus again.
Jesus wants us to offer Him the first portion of our time.
He wants us to give Him the first part of each day, each week, each month and each year. Not as religious practices or sacrifices but as covenant offerings to the Lord of our lives. Such tiny offerings but He accepts the little that we give Him and blesses it.
Jesus wants you to meet with Him each in the morning.
Jesus had the practice of meeting with the Father alone, just the two of them, early in the morning before He did anything else. Before He spoke with His disciples or anybody else He prayed.
“Before daybreak the next morning, Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray.” Mark 1:35
The Father loves to commune with us in authentic relationship. When we rise early to seek Him with worship and adoration and talk with Him before we start our day it brings an intimacy to our faith that only comes through a love relationship with our Heavenly Father.
When you take time with Him in worship and give Him thanks each morning He will speak to you and guide you.
Jesus wants us to gather with the body of Christ each week.
Because Jesus rose on the first day the disciples went from gathering on the Sabbath (Saturday) to gathering on (Sunday) the first day of the week to worship and come together with the Lord to share in the communion of the Lord’s Supper.
“On the first day of the week, we gathered with the local believers to share in the Lord’s Supper.” Acts 20:7
God, first of all, wants us to meet with Him alone in a place that is detached from the rest of the world to have personal intimate, authentic communion with Him Spirit to spirit but secondly He wants us to gather together to worship Him in the unity of the Spirit.
Jesus wants us to worship Him and rejoice each new month.
A month, according to the Bible is a new season or cycle. As the months occur time continues to move forward and the cycle of the heavens recur in circular motion declaring the glory of God. If recognize the beginning of each month as more than a new moon but a time to meet with God and give Him back the first and best portion of our time by setting aside a time to worship Him with thanksgiving for allowing us to move forward in time and make it through into another cycle of blessings.
Isaiah foresaw a time when people of all nations would gather in Jerusalem to worship the Lord the way He intended – in unity and devotion to Him but we can start now.
“All humanity will come to worship me from week to week and from month to month.” Isaiah 66:23
The Lord wants us to celebrate each new year with Him.
Under the old Covenant each new year the Israelites would blow a trumpet and have a time of rest and rejoicing, and a day to present special gifts to the Lord.
The Bible says: “On the first day of the appointed month in early autumn, you are to observe a day of complete rest. It will be an official day for holy assembly, a day commemorated with loud blasts of a trumpet. You must do no ordinary work on that day. Instead, you are to present special gifts to the Lord.” Leviticus 23:24-25
In the last days the Bible says, “We will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send out his angels with the mighty blast of a trumpet, and they will gather his chosen ones from all over the world—from the farthest ends of the earth and heaven.” Matthew 24:30-31
In American Christian culture we celebrate each new year with rejoicing and by watching /waiting to make it in and by rededicating our lives to the Lord. The Biblical new year is the same thing really, but done according to God’s plans and purposes.
Jesus wants us to worship in Spirit and in Truth.
Jesus told the Samaritan women – “we Jews know who we worship,” (John 4:22). The same thing could be said to Christians today. We worship God in our way and that is good, we have liberty to do so but it’s better to know the reason behind our worship. Our Savior is Jewish, salvation is of the Jews and our God made them Jewish when He set them apart and revealed Himself to them.
Beloved, I pray not that you would try to be Jewish or take up their religious rituals but rather that you would learn how to worship the Lord in Spirit and in truth with the knowledge of the holy (Truth) and the intimacy of the Spirit.
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