Worship Devotional CXII

Mar 5

Originally posted to the Facebook group on 3/5/2022.

Fullness Of Joy — An Everlasting Reward

Worship Devotional for 3/6/22

1 Corinthians 13:8-13 says:

"Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for languages, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when the perfect comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put aside childish things. For now we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, as I am fully known. Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love."

The greatest eternal gift we have in Christ is love. Love is our portion. Love is our reward for believing in the only name that can truly save. In the love of God, we have life, joy, righteousness, truth, peace, strength, and every other good thing that God gives to us. His love is the only thing that can satisfy our hearts forever.

This week as we gather together to sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, to encourage one another in faith and truth, to have fellowship with each other and with the Holy Spirit who lives in each of us, to grow closer to God as we seek Him together that we might know and love Him more, and to love one another as He has commanded us, let's consider how great a love God has for us and how wonderful and true is the reward He has prepared for us! Let's consider that He is Himself our great reward, for we were made by Him and for Him, that He would delight in us and we would delight in Him and in His faithful love. Here are some passages of Scripture to reflect on and prepare us to worship our great and mighty God. May His word go deep and our hearts and produce fruit in our lives on this earth.

Psalm 16:

"Protect me, God, for I take refuge in You. I said to Yahweh, 'You are my Lord; I have nothing good besides You.' As for the holy people who are in the land, they are the noble ones. All my delight is in them. The sorrows of those who take another god for themselves will multiply; I will not pour out their drink offerings of blood, and I will not speak their names with my lips.
Lord, You are my portion and my cup of blessing; You hold my future. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.
I will praise the Lord who counsels me — even at night my conscience instructs me. I keep the Lord in mind always. Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
Therefore my heart is glad and my spirit rejoices; my body also rests securely. For You will not abandon me to Sheol; You will not allow Your Faithful One to see decay. You reveal the path of life to me; in Your presence is abundant joy; in Your right hand are eternal pleasures."

Psalm 62:

"I am at rest in God alone; my salvation comes from Him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I will never be shaken.
How long will you threaten a man? Will all of you attack as if he were a leaning wall or a tottering stone fence? They only plan to bring him down from his high position. They take pleasure in lying; they bless with their mouths, but they curse inwardly. Selah
Rest in God alone, my soul, for my hope comes from Him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I will not be shaken.
My salvation and glory depend on God, my strong rock. My refuge is in God. Trust in Him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts before Him. God is our refuge. Selah
Men are only a vapor; exalted men, an illusion. Weighed in the scales, they go up; together they are less than a vapor. Place no trust in oppression, or false hope in robbery. If wealth increases, pay no attention to it.
God has spoken once; I have heard this twice: strength belongs to God, and faithful love belongs to You, Lord. For You repay each according to his works."

Philippians 3:7-21:

"But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of Him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them filth, so that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ — the righteousness from God based on faith. My goal is to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.
Not that I have already reached the goal or am already fully mature, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus. Therefore, all who are mature should think this way. And if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this also to you. In any case, we should live up to whatever truth we have attained. Join in imitating me, brothers, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us. For I have often told you, and now say again with tears, that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction; their god is their stomach; their glory is in their shame. They are focused on earthly things, but our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of His glorious body, by the power that enables Him to subject everything to Himself."

Songs: