March 19, 2000

God is great.  We know that.  That’s a given.   And it’s true that He’s greater then we are.  It’s true that no one can live a righteous life without Him.  But sometimes in our times of worship and prayer we focus too much on how much we need Him.  We focus on how we don’t deserve His mercy and grace.  We focus on repentance, our need to change etc...   We go on and on about our unworthiness.

There’s a time for those things.  When you come to Him for the first time for example-to be saved.  That’s a time to admit you’re worthless without Him.  But then you receive Him into your life and you’re not without Him any more!

The problem with spending all our times of worship and prayer with that type of atmosphere is that we are focusing on ourself.  We’re trying not to be prideful because we don’t want to think more highly of ourself then we ought to, but we’re going to the extreme the other way.  Which causes us to still draw attention to ourself.  We’re talking about how unworthy we are to deserve Him, how we need to change, we need this or we need that.  Instead of focusing on His greatness.

If we truly want to exalt Him we need to quit talking and singing about our own needs and unworthiness!  Especially since He has done something about our unworthiness--He has made us worthy!  If we’re going to talk about ourself we need to talk about what He’s done for us.  He has made us wise, righteous, and sanctified, (1 Corinthians 1:30).  We’re washed in the Blood of Jesus.   To say that your sin is too much for the Blood of Jesus to handle is an insult to Him.  He has made us overcomers, (1 John 4:4, 5:4-5), and He’s made us conquerors, (Romans 8:37).

It’s time for us to get past ourselves and to accept the fact that we’re King’s kids living in a King’s household.  Don’t go on and on about how you don’t deserve it--just accept it.  Because if you don’t, you won’t be able to get on with what He has for you.  How would you feel if every time you gave your children a meal, or bought them a new outfit or did something nice for them, they were depressed and went on and on about how they don’t deserve it?  You would get tired of that.  You would want them to just say, ‘thank-you’ and get on with the business of being your child.  God is the same way.  We have benefits and privileges that come from being in His household.   He wants us to enjoy those blessings and get on with what He’s called us to do.

If we’re continually struggling with whether we deserve His blessings or not, we’ll struggle with our health, our finances, our thoughts, sin or other problems.  How will we ever be able to help others?  Our lives should testify of the goodness of God.  This is how He shows His goodness-through the blessings on His people.  Who else would He do it for?

God Bless you and have a great day!