May 15th, 2020

 A singing Friday to all,
The words in 1Chronicles 16:23-25 exhort us: [Sing to the Lord, all the earth! Tell of His salvation from day to day. Declare HIs glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples! For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and He is to be feared above all gods.] Those words do not seem to indicate that we are only to do so in moments when we feel good, are in need of nothing, or are having what we would define as a good day. The words indicate this is something to be done every day.

This scripture came to mind as I read an article in which different churches provided input as to how they were dealing with the virus and the church.  One pastor encouraged the reader to pray more for our ministry than our misery. The point of his input was that our prayers should not be about quality of life but about how we are using our lives to glorify God.  He made the statement, "if we redefine the good life as simply glorifying God, then life will never be bad." The premise of his statement being that if we defined good life by our health, wealth or prosperity, many of us are not having a good life right now.  I went to bed mulling over his words and asked myself about the focus of my prayers and realized I did not do as well as I should praying for our ministry as our misery.  I trust in God, I embrace the Biblical principle of utter dependence on Him. What this means is that many of my prayers are for our needs. The needs of our church body, the needs of the school, the need for wisdom and discernment in my lesson and sermon preparation. These are not bad things and should be a part of our prayers. However, where I had to face inadequacy was in the answer to the question, "How often is my prayer simply for the opportunity to glorify Him?"

Paul writes in Romans 11:36 [For from Him and through Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen.]  Peter tells us in 1Peter 4:10-11 [As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God provides.--in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To Him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.]  To Him belong glory forever. Each and every day!  Let our actions, our thoughts, our very prayers be first about how we can glorify His name in the day we find ourselves in, regardless of other external factors. 

Have a wonderful day glorifying Him,
Vic