Praise to the Lord Who over all things
   So wondrously reigneth
Shelters thee under His wings
  Yea so gently sustaineth
Hast thou not seen how thy desires ever have been
Granted in what He ordaineth?

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty
By: Joachim Neander 1680, trans. Catherine Winkworth 1863

Listen to this modern version of this majestic hymn as you prepare to ponder the lyrics.  Please make certain to enjoy the podcast below.

Here is podcast content always available to Subscribers, sometimes to Free Members, and occasionally to everyone.  Want to learn more about accessing all the additional material in the Subscriber Content Library? Click here.  Or check out some other samples at our Free Member Content Library.  We have lots of tools and options designed to help you be Resonant!  Check them out today!!

Everyone enjoy this podcast and transcript below!  It features meditative music and moments to contemplate the Scriptures and reflections shared.

Transcript may be found below, at the end of the blog.

As we continue our journey through this hymn ask the Holy Spirit to help you receive and then issue this call to worship. Be sure to find your place in the praise. Let’s think about this.

Can You See It?

What are you looking for? We are inclined to longer the things we desire most, which we think we give us the greatest delight, or grant us the greatest deliverance. Unfortunately, we generally look to the wrong things to usher in those seemingly elusive pursuits.

So what are you looking for? A relationship to grant you companionship? Or a career to give you a sense of purpose? Maybe a home to provide a haven of security? Possibly something you can shop for or travel to see, or potentially something as simple as a tribe to call your own.

All of these things are wonderful, but also give us only a limited sense of what our souls truly long for, God. When we look to him to be our companion, purpose and security, the lesser expressions of them become a sign of His benevolent care. The things we own or the places we go, as well as the people we are them with become so much richer when they are demonstrations of His love for us.

Seeing all these things as His provision points us to Him, the One who is the true Satisfaction of every desire.

Developing Your Perspective

Hast thou not seen how thy desires ever have been [Granted]

And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 1 John 5:14 ESV

Here we find a rhetorical question. It is asked to make the point that God answers us when we ask in accordance with His will. The trouble we have is that we often ask God for things, we desire things that are not in His will. How do we experience this confidence? Learn His will.         

Have you seen God grant your every desire? No? What do you imagine the issue might be? Is God stingy? Maybe He is incapable of providing for some of our desires. Sounds ridiculous if He truly is Ruler over all things, right? So maybe He isn’t. Or maybe the issue is my desires.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

RESONATE!
Take a few moments to ask God to reveal to you the true longing of your soul. Ask Him to show you where you may be longing for counterfeits. Determine to bring you desires in lie with His. Start by making this your simple prayer.”Spirit, help me desire the things You want for me.” 

His Ordained Will

When we see His will clearly, we can bring our labors in line with fulfilling it. We are capable of bringing all our efforts to bear to this pursuit, rather than trying to simply get what we want. It is the best way to use all those abilities fo the purpose for which they were designed, helping us know God better and share Him with others.

What are you laboring toward? Your dreams, goals, aspirations? Or God’s? It is easy for us to sanctify our desires and ask God to bless them. We would be better served surrendering our will in pursuit of His. That pursuit will bring us a deeper fulfillment than anything we could ever achieve outside of it.

Aligning Our Will to His

[Granted] in what He ordaineth

And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. 1 John 5:15 ESV

As an expression of His care for us, God will not give us things that will not help us to know, love and trust Him more. That is His will for us. When we ask for those things, we can have confidence that we already have them, even if they have not been delivered just yet.

If aligning our desires with God’s is really the issue, and it is, then how do we even begin to make the necessary adjustment? Can we even desire different things or are we just broken? Yes we can and yes we are, but God’s will is to help us desire better by finding rest in His provision.

RESONATE!

Most of our desires are pursuits of things outside of ourselves. Our most significant challenge to taking the drive for the external things and address the internal craving. It requires a change of heart. Make this your prayer today, “Jesus, change my desires by changing me.”

Are these thoughts helping you to develop greater spiritual awareness?  Sign-up in the form to the right above to get updates of new tools to help you be Resonant.

Image Attributions
Hast thou not seen how thy desires ever have been –  https://pixabay.com/illustrations/social-media-manager-online-woman-1966025/
Granted in what He ordaineth – https://pixabay.com/photos/skills-professional-development-3371153/

Praise to the Lord the Almighty, The King of creation
O my soul praise Him For He is thy health and salvation
All ye who hear now to His temple draw near
Praise Him in glad adoration

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty
By: Joachim Neander 1680, trans. Catherine Winkworth 1863

Listen to this modern version of this majestic hymn as you prepare to ponder the lyrics.  Please make certain to enjoy the podcast below.

Here is podcast content always available to Subscribers, sometimes to Free Members, and occasionally to everyone.  Want to learn more about accessing all the additional material in the Subscriber Content Library? Click here.  Or check out some other samples at our Free Member Content Library.  We have lots of tools and options designed to help you be Resonant!  Check them out today!!

Everyone enjoy this podcast and transcript below!  It features meditative music and moments to contemplate the Scriptures and reflections shared.

Transcript may be found below, at the end of the blog.

As we begin our journey through this hymn ask the Holy Spirit to help you receive and then issue this call to worship. Be sure to find your place in the praise. Let’s think about this.

Invitation

Can you hear it? The call to worship. The invitation to come and join the praise. Maybe you can hear the music faintly. Possibly you simply feel draw. You know something is happening and you want to be a part of it.

It is the sound of the music to which you are responding? Or the call of the Spirit? What do think made David glad?

He had been a musician since he was young. Several Psalms are attributed to him. This poet-musician, literally a psalmist, must have loved everything about drawing near to God, especially with others as is evidenced this following passage. But what do you think it was that made him glad?

All ye who hear now to His temple draw near

A Song of Ascents. Of David. I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord!” Psalm 122:1 ESV

The invitation that begins in the inner-working of the soul rings out to all who have ears to hear. It echoes across all time and space but not everyone will respond, only those who the Spirit gives ears to hear the invitation. Give thanks that you are hearing the invitation even now.

We can worship God in the quietness of our soul but that is simply not enough. We must gather with others and join together to offer the glory due His name. Do you have a group of Christians that you join with regularly to worship God? If not, find one soon.

God, thank You for calling me to worship with others.

RESONATE!
If you are not gathering with others to offer God praise why not start now? You can play your favorite worship song and raise your voice in your car or at home, but doing so with others is different. Part of it is the discipline, but another part is the community. It is a privilege so take advantage of it. Start by making this your simple prayer.”God, thank You for calling me to worship with others.” 

Glad

David was glad. The Psalmist below exhorts us to gladness. Why should our adoration be marked like this?

Think about it. The One who made everything has made Himself known to us. Not only that but He has granted us health and salvation. As if that were not enough already, He then extends a call or command to come together with others and offer Him praise.

This may seem a little heavy-handed, God commanding us to praise. What is truly remarkable is not that He does so, but why. He could do so simply because He deserves it, but that is not all. He does so because He knows that bringing Him the praise He deserves reorients us toward Him which is as great a blessing as all the other things He has done.

Praise Him in glad adoration

A Psalm for giving thanks. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! Psalm 100:1-2 ESV

We praise Him in glad adoration, not just adoration. Joyful gladness should mark the praise that we bring. Do a quick self-assessment. Could that description be offered for the praise you regularly offer to God? If not, determine today to bring him that kind of praise.

Not just adoration, glad adoration. Adoration that you are pleased, even delighted to offer. God wants us to be able to find great joy in offering our praise, and to do so with others. This communal character of our worship is a dimension of what makes us glad. Join in, and soon.

RESONATE!

God goes one step further and enables you to offer adoration that is glad. He commands it then empowers you to offer it. You still have to respond in obedience of course, but even the ability to do that is a gift from Him. Make this your prayer today, “Spirit, make my adoration glad, and in a group.”

Are these thoughts helping you to develop greater spiritual awareness?  Sign-up in the form to the right above to get updates of new tools to help you be Resonant.

Image Attributions
All ye who hear now to His temple draw near –https://pixabay.com/photos/choir-choir-master-church-conductor-5781096/
Praise Him in glad adoration –https://pixabay.com/photos/prayer-worship-church-religion-4979713/

Though an Infant now we view Him,
He shall fill His Father’s throne,
Gather all the nations to Him;
Every knee shall then bow down:
Come and worship, come and worship,
Worship Christ, the newborn King.

Angels, from the Realms of Glory
By: James Montgomery, 1771-1854 (1816)

Listen to this simple piano version as you read, or watch the video complete with lyrics then read.  Please make certain to enjoy the podcast below.

Here is podcast content always available to Subscribers, sometimes to Free Members, and occasionally to everyone.  Want to learn more about accessing all the additional material in the Subscriber Content Library, click here.  Or check out some other samples at our Free Member Content Library.  We have lots of tools and lots of options designed to help you be Resonant!  Check them out today!!

Everyone enjoy this podcast and transcript below!  It features meditative music and moments to contemplate the Scriptures and reflections shared.

Transcript may be found below, at the end of the blog.

Jesus, King of the Nations

I have this beautiful print hanging in my study.  As a pastor in a denomination where missions is our middle name, this keeps before me the purpose of our worship, to usher the nations into the throng that Jesus is gathering to Himself through our labors of making disciples.  We make much of Jesus for two reasons.

1. He alone is worthy to be praised.
2. He is calling all the nations to bow down before Him.

So let’s spend a couple moments on those two things as we begin a New Year of worshipping Jesus.

“Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation…”  Revelation 5:9b ESV

Worthy.  John the Revelator shares his vision of heaven and hears this song sung by the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders around the throne.  Because of His finished work in the cross Jesus is able to open the scrolls revealing God’s will for the end of days, part of which is to gather His blood-bought children from every nation.

Worthy.  John the Baptist declared at the beginning on His ministry of Jesus, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” [John 1:29] He was slain as the sacrifice for our sins.  His blood ransomed us from our sins and made people for God, all who trust in Jesus.  No one else could have done that but Jesus.

Worthy.  Does your life reflect this?  How were you in 2019 at declaring the worthiness of your King to a watching world?  It is good to reflect on that, but also to embrace a new beginning. This year is fresh and filled with endless opportunities to show and tell just how worthy Jesus is of our praise, and the praises of all the nations He is gathering.

Will you commit to keeping your eyes, ears and heart open to seize those opportunities as they come?

Have you any part in getting the gospel to them?

Then Bow Down

This is a very powerful image to me.  First because it allows me to imagine Jesus wearing that coat of many colors representing His Lordship over the nations from above.  Second because it pictures the countless multitude bowing down before Him.  Third because we are all similar in our robes washed white by the blood of the of the Lamb.

Let’s think about this.

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.  Philippians 2:9-11 ESV

He is exalted.  There is simply no one like Jesus.  His is the name above every name.  I must reflect this in my life daily.  I must find ways to demonstrate this, in giving, praying and going.  It is not just an idea.  I must find ways to express the reality of this in my life.  How will you declare this truth with your life this week as we begin a New Year?  How will you intentionally invite the Spirit to exalt Jesus regularly this year?

Every knee, every tongue.  Though placing faith in Jesus seems optional now, it will not be on that day pictured here.  There will be none who fail to bow.  Still the greatest treasure remains for those who choose to worship Christ now by humbling themselves before Him.  When you bow on that day will it be a new activity for you or one with which you are well-accustomed?  Will you bow your knee to Him today, then repeat it everyday?  That posture prepares you heart to use your tongue for His glory.

To the glory of God.  What Jesus has accomplished in bringing this vast array of worshippers before the Father Almighty will truly bring great glory to God!  Are you longing for that day?  Is it because you want to see the impact your giving and praying actually made, or because you simply look forward to enjoying what Christ made available through your faith in Him?  What will you do in 2020 to be a part of taking the gospel of Jesus to those who have yet to hear?   Will you give?  Will you pray?  Will you go or send?  Be a part of seeing God’s work completed by doing your part.

These are some big questions to ponder as we begin a New Year.  May your resolutions reflect your preoccupation on Jesus Christ and His work in and through you in 2020.  Happy New Year my friends!

Are these thoughts helping you to develop greater spiritual awareness?  Sign-up in the form to the right above to get updates of new tools to help you be Resonant.

Image Attributions
Gather All the Nations – https://sandistatondigitaldesigns.com/2013/08/10/a-coat-of-many-colors/
Every Knee Shall Bow – https://www.lordsart.com/evknshbowbyj.html