Father, I am always grateful for a new day, a new week. Lamentations 3:22-23 proclaims, “The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.” Thank You, Father, for Your love, mercy, and faithfulness!

Matthew 12:6 (<<click the green)

I addressed the fuller portion of this passage yesterday, Lord, but a note from my study Bible* jumped out at me and has given me reason to pause and think.

“If we become more concerned with the means of worship than with the one we worship, we will miss God even as we think we are worshiping him.”

Do we get so caught up in the trappings of worship that we miss You?

For me, music factors greatly into worship. Music has been a great part of my life for as long as I can remember. It helps that a come from a musically inclined family but early on, when You called me into ministry, Lord, I felt lead to go into music ministry and pursued that degree in college. My first pastoral position was as minister of music and still today, as You have lead me to become the pastor of two churches, music is a big part of what I feel is a necessary component in worshipping You.

But again I must ask, do we get so caught up in the trappings of worship that we miss You? Each week I strive to follow Your direction as I put together the many different elements of my congregation’s corporate time with You. Over and over again, even with my diligence, I am amazed as I witness Your hand at work when the hymn I selected turns out to be just the right hymn to tie everything together after the message You have given me has been delivered.

Lord Jesus, I would pray that You would always keep my heart set on You. I want everything to be the best it can be but I would pray that the “perfection” of it all would never override the importance of the spotlight shining on You…and You alone.

As John the Baptist stated in regards to You, “He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.” John 3:30

Amen, Lord, may that be the case.

*Life Application Study Bible New Living Translation

Apr 9th, 2018, Mon, 6:32 am