Worship Devotional CXXIV

May 28

Originally posted to the Facebook group on 5/28/2022.

Reawaken Us To Your Presence, Spirit Of God

Worship Devotional for 5/29/22

We gather together with each other for one purpose: to know and worship the one true God through His Son Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit who lives within us, that we may grow together to become more like Him as one church comprised of believers in Jesus Christ — children of the living God — all to the glory of His name, that He may be known among all the peoples on earth. This is why we sing, have fellowship with each other, pray together, and tune our hearts and our ears to His word. It's not about us or what we want or our ideas or plans or opinions of how things should be done. It's about meeting with the living God and surrendering all that we are to Him, that His Spirit may sanctify us as vessels for His presence and His glory. This is, after all, our purpose on earth, the very reason for our existence, the meaning of life, and God's revealed purpose for creation — that we, as those who have been made in His image, would reflect His glory to all of creation and multiply His praises throughout the earth.

We cannot be who we were made to be or fulfill our purpose in life without the Holy Spirit moving and working within us. When we sing our songs of praise and worship to Him, what we really need is not some mere feeling or emotion or an outward display that thrills our senses, but rather to come into the presence of the living God. We carry the presence of God with us wherever we go, because the Holy Spirit lives within each of us who are believers in Christ. 1 Corinthians 3:16 offers us a reminder:

"Don't you yourselves know that you are God's sanctuary and that the Spirit of God lives in you?"

Romans 8:8-11 also makes it clear that God's Spirit does indeed live inside of us:

"Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God lives in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. Now if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then He who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through His Spirit who lives in you."

When we pray for the Spirit of God and the presence of God to come and fill our hearts and the places where we gather to worship, we are praying to be more in tune with God's presence, more aware of what He is doing within and around us. There are so many worldly things that try to distract us from what really matters. There are temptations of the flesh which we still must wage war against as we dwell in these fleshly bodies during our temporary lives in this world. We need to turn our eyes to Jesus and to dwell in the presence of God as His Spirit dwells within us. Because He is in us, the Spirit of God is always able to help us to keep our eyes on Christ, to strengthen us to fight temptation and to stand against the forces of evil, and to guide us into all truth as we seek to follow Christ in all our ways. The Spirit of God is Christ in us, and He is making us more like Him as we trust in Him and learn to love Him with all our hearts and minds and souls and strength. 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 reminds us:

"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit."

The Spirit of the living God is working in us to produce what is of God, that we may become like Him, for we are His children who have been adopted into His family through the work of the Son. This is so that we might also be holy as our God is holy. The Holy Spirit is sanctifying us in the righteousness of Christ, so that we can stand clean and pure in His holy presence, for no sin or evil or wickedness can enter into the presence of the One who is holy. Psalm 24:3-6 says:

"Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not set his mind on what is false, and who has not sworn deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. Such is the generation of those who seek Him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Selah"

I want to be one of those who are blessed by the Lord with the righteousness given by God through saving faith in Jesus Christ. How greatly we can rejoice, because this is who we are! We have indeed been blessed with the salvation and righteousness and justification that are in Christ. He has accomplished the work of righteousness for us, and has sent His Spirit into our hearts to sanctify us and to produce His fruit in our lives as we remain in Him! So this week, as we focus on the Holy Spirit and His work in our lives, let's come together with a heart that yearns deeply for a greater awareness of His presence within us, that we might be transformed more and more into the likeness of Christ by His sanctifying power, and therefore live our whole lives for the ever-increasing glory of the one true God.

Jude 20-25:

"But you, dear friends, as you build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, expecting the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life. Have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; have mercy on others but with fear, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.
Now to Him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of His glory, blameless and with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now and forever. Amen."

Songs: