How can I Morning after morning Wrap myself in All this glory And not open my Mouth to praise?
by Alesha Sinks
So often I find myself overwhelmed by the beauty of nature. And yet, so often I fail to step forward into the intended result of awe and wonder…worship.
Isn’t that the purpose of creation?
”The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” Psalm 19:1 (NIV)
“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities–his eternal power and divine nature–have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” Romans 1:20 (NIV)
In the Psalms, there are examples upon examples of the writer praising God, inspired by and in awe of the glory of God’s creation.
“How many are your works, LORD! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.” Psalm 104:24
“For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;” Psalm 95:3-6
Yet so many mornings I hurry, feet pounding across weather pavement, stechting out to reach the sunrise. And when I get there, when I reach the oceans edge with the early light rippling across the waves, when I stand still and breathless at the beauty in front of me, I forget to do the very thing for which my soul was made.
I forget to do the very thing for which my soul was made.
I forget to take my awe of creation and let it lead me into awe of the Creator.
And that’s true of a little million moments throughout my days. watching pure joy radiate from my son’s face when that one shaft of light slips through the living room blinds the first glorious sip of coffee a peaceful moment, book in hand a friend reaching out in love and encouragement that one song playing right, exactly when I needed to hear it a cool breeze stirring through the hot evening air, summoning us to rest
How often do these moements slip through my grasp, our grasp, awakening joy and peace and hope and beauty, but failing to turn our hearts in gratitude toward their Giver.
I’m practicing. Practicing awareness in the moment. Practicing giving a practical, out-loud or a quiet, whispered-in-my-heart “thank you God” when I am surprised by joy. Praciticing reflection on blessings at the end of the day or the week or the month and practicing offering my thanks to God then. Practicing to make a seamless turn from “Wow, how beautiful” into “God, You are so beautiful”.
I’m practicing to make a seamless turn from “Wow, how beautiful” into “God, You are so beautiful”.
Will you practice with me? Will you join me in allowing the beauty around us to not just catch our eyes or our hearts, but to turn our hearts toward God?
My prayer for us today is…
Let the beauty we encounter daily lead us to worship.
It caught me by surprise. But at the same time, I was praying for answers. For guidance. For proof we were still on the right path. For proof we were still following His call and not just blindly stumbling around on our own trying to make things work.
“When I answer all your prayers, worship Me.”
I felt so many emotions surging almost simultaneously.
Joy. Joy that He was listening. Joy that He was going to answer. Joy that He spoke to me. Joy that I had something to do, some clear directive on what to do next.
Frustration. Frustration that He wasn’t actually answering any of my prayers yet. Frustration that He didn’t say if we were doing or pursing the right things. Frustration that He didn’t say when this was going to happen.
Relief. Relief that it isn’t up to us. Relief that He would be the one to do it, so all we had to do was worship. Relief that I heard Him so clearly.
As these emotions washed over me and back again, a question began growing in me.
”Okay God. You said to worship You when You answer our prayers. What does that actually look like?”
I knew that worship wasn’t only singing songs with my hands raised on Sunday mornings. I knew that it was something I needed to do with my whole life. Honoring Him through my actions and words and decisions.
But to worship Him for something specific… What did that mean? What is that supposed to look like?
So I started praying some more.
It’s amazing how so often the answers God gives me when I pray, push me to praying even more…to seeking Him and pressing into Him all the harder.
Asking over and over, searching lives and stories around me, I struggled to understand how to worship God in this way.
Slowly, quietly, a few things have presented themselves.
First, I can worship God through prayer.
I can literally sit down or stand up or kneel on the ground and use my voice to out loud tell God, “Thank you. I worship You. You did this and I acknowledge that it was You, not me, and I praise You for it.”
Second, I can tell others.
I can use my actual voice to boldly proclaim to people in my real life, “I asked God for this and He answered. I prayed for this and here is how He came through for me.”
Third, I can take hold of the evidence of God’s goodness for me and allow it to fill me further with hope and faith in Him.
I can tell God and others of His goodness and faithfulness and then go right back to my worrying ways about the next problem in my life. Or I can choose to rejoice in the goodness and kindness He has shown me and then hold fast to Him no matter how difficult and painful and broken the rest of my life is.
As I type these words out, my heart is drawn into rejoicing and praise once again, because these things listed above, they are the answers to my prayer. The prayer that said, ”God, teach me how to worship You.”
But before He showed me those things I listed above, He showed me something much deeper.
If I want to worship Him for answering my prayers, I have to to notice when He does.
There have been so many times in my life that I have prayed and prayed for something, only to fail to notice when He answers, or to barely acknowledge it when I do notice.
We cannot worship Him and give Him the glory and honor for what He does in our lives if we fail to, or refuse to, notice the things He does.
I’ve gotten distracted, forgotten to persevere in prayer, and subsequently not even noticed when the prayer was later answered.
I’ve been so excited when He answers my prayers that I run around telling everyone I know what a huge blessing God gave us, and never stopped to tell God how thankful I am.
I’ve been so fixated on the bigger and scarier problems in my life that I refuse to worship God when He answers in the little ways, simply because I’m angry that He isn’t answering the big ways.
Missing any step in the chain will hinder me from being able to worship God, to give Him the glory, for what He is doing in my life.
I must simply do the work of praying, noticing, and worshiping God for His work in me.
It comes down to that. To the day in and day out of staying in close relationship and communication with God, no matter how loud or quiet He seems. He will follow through on His end. I must follow through on mine.
I sat on the park bench watching. Watching my husband chase our three year old up and down the ramps and slides. Watching our one year old climb up and down the slide. Watching older kids run past shouting and laughing. Watching the overcast sky fade from pale grey to dark gray.
The breeze was light, but just cool enough to feel that first hint of fall.
I looked around, feeling that warm-but-not-hot air and the ever-so-slightly-cool breeze winding around me. I had forgotten.
In the long, hot months of Florida summer, I had forgotten that another season would come. And I had forgotten how wonderful it is when it does.
I sat there silently marveling. Marveling that somehow I could forget that summer would be over and the heat would fade and we could go outside in the evening into the most perfect weather. Marveling that I could somehow forget that the heaviness of summer heat and humidity would be replaced by the lightness of a cool sunny day. Marveling that we are there already, at that point in the year where we can feel the season changing.
Heat to cool. Heavy to light. Summer to fall.
And I had forgotten.
But here we are. The first hints of the joy to come already showing up around me.
And I as I sat breathing in the cool, light air around me, I felt a whisper in my heart that I’ve come to learn as His voice.
”Don’t forget what’s coming.”
Don’t forget what’s coming.
This season of life has been so long. It’s felt like the summer, hot and smothering and heavy, and to be honest, I’ve found myself forgetting. Forgetting that the season will change. Forgetting that although God allows us to walk through the valley, He will also lead us beside still waters. He will also restore our souls.
"Don’t forget what’s coming,” He whispered.
And to be honest, I can barely remember what a season of freedom in certain areas of life feels like, because this season has been long. So very long.
But I know Whom I believe. Whether I remember what a change in season feels like or not, I will trust what He says.
This year, as our environmental season shifts around me, I have a whole new reason for hope. Hope that this season of the soul is shifting too.
I sat on the park bench watching. Watching my husband chase our three year old up and down the ramps and slides. Watching our one year old climb up and down the slide. Watching older kids run past shouting and laughing. Watching the overcast sky fade from pale grey to dark gray.
The breeze was light, but just cool enough to feel that first hint of fall.
I looked around, feeling that warm-but-not-hot air and the ever-so-slightly-cool breeze winding around me. I had forgotten.
In the long, hot months of Florida summer, I had forgotten that another season would come. And I had forgotten how wonderful it is when it does.
I sat there silently marveling. Marveling that somehow I could forget that summer would be over and the heat would fade and we could go outside in the evening into the most perfect weather. Marveling that I could somehow forget that the heaviness of summer heat and humidity would be replaced by the lightness of a cool sunny day. Marveling that we are there already, at that point in the year where we can feel the season changing.
Heat to cool. Heavy to light. Summer to fall.
And I had forgotten.
But here we are. The first hints of the joy to come already showing up around me.
And I as I sat breathing in the cool, light air around me, I felt a whisper in my heart that I’ve come to learn as His voice.
”Don’t forget what’s coming.”
Don’t forget what’s coming.
This season of life has been so long. It’s felt like the summer, hot and smothering and heavy, and to be honest, I’ve found myself forgetting. Forgetting that the season will change. Forgetting that although God allows us to walk through the valley, He will also lead us beside still waters. He will also restore our souls.
"Don’t forget what’s coming,” He whispered.
And to be honest, I can barely remember what a season of freedom in certain areas of life feels like, because this season has been long. So very long.
But I know Whom I believe. Whether I remember what a change in season feels like or not, I will trust what He says.
This year, as our environmental season shifts around me, I have a whole new reason for hope. Hope that this season of the soul is shifting too.
Being thankful – full of thanks – is just the first step. Giving thanks is what we are meant to do with our thankfulness.
Thankfulness itself is a feeling, a being filled up with thanks on the inside, a joy and happiness and excitement over the gift. But giving thanks is a response that turns our attention off of the gift and onto the Giver.
“Giving thanks takes our eyes off of our gifts and puts them back onto the giver. It takes something that was once self-centered and internal, and makes it more about the relationship between the giver and the receiver of the gift.” Travis Sinks
We were never meant to fill up full of thanks and keep it to ourselves. Being thankful will never satisfy our hearts in the way that giving thanks is meant to. Because giving thanks isn’t about the gift, its about the relationship between the Giver and the Receiver.
As I listened, I realized that somewhere along the line, I’ve stopped giving thanks and settled for simply being thankful. And there is little joy that comes from simply being thankful. Because if being thankful is about the gift, then it will never satisfy.
However…
Giving thanks to the Giver of all good gifts, brings me into intimacy with God, and it is intimacy with God that will truly satisfy my soul.
“A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.” John 3:27
As we come to this day of giving thanks, I’m being careful to remember Who I’m giving thanks to. Because so often we write our gratitudes in a list or throw our thanks into the wind without any thought of Who we are directing our thanks towards.
Even the giving of thanks will prove itself fruitless, unless we direct our thanks and our hearts toward the One who gave us the gifts we are declaring our thanks for.
So this Thanksgiving week, I’m taking my moments of thankfulness and turning them into moments of intimacy with my God through the giving of thanks. And I’m praying this reminder will prove fruitful to more than just me.
Will you join me in the giving of thanks and the building of intimacy with the Giver of all good gifts?
