What’s on your spiritual plate for 2020? Have you asked God what He’s cooking up for you this year? If you’ve never tried it, ask Him for a word, a verse, or a picture for the new year. Last year I received a verse. This year, a word: Worship.

For me, worship connotes the presence of holiness, an aroma of frankincense, flickering candles, bread and juice, music of all kinds, kneeling humbly, and even dancing.

Worship. I can’t limit it to a weekend service. I must think lifestyle.

And changing my lifestyle takes practice. 

Last year, I changed my diet for health reasons. No red meat. No caffeine. Lots of veggies. Lots. The changes felt drastic. Thank goodness for dark chocolate. It took a full year to make peace with the new diet. 

Today I’m applying the same principles to worship. Some things will have to go. I’m eliminating the time junk food and even “normal” time consumers I just can’t afford any longer to make room for more worship.

What am I consuming that gives little to no benefit?

Empty time calories.

Harmful time calories.

Extra time calories.

Because worship starts now.

Psalm 100

A psalm. For giving grateful praise.

¹ Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
²     Worship the Lord with gladness;
    come before him with joyful songs.
³ Know that the Lord is God.
    It is he who made us, and we are his;
    we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving
    and his courts with praise;
    give thanks to him and praise his name.
⁵ For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
    his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Workout for the Week: Change for 2020

Memory Verse: “Know that the Lord is God.
    It is he who made us, and we are his;
    we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.” Psalm 100:3 NIV

Meditation Passage: Psalm 100

Do It: The Westminster Shorter Confession states, “What is man’s chief end? To glorify God and to praise Him forever.” In essence, worship. 

But what does it mean to glorify God?

Richard Foster gives a great definition of glorify: 

 “. . . for us to give glory to God means that we magnify his goodness. Now, to magnify something, you make it look larger, increasing it out of proportion. To talk about ourselves or our activities out of proportion is dangerous indeed, but when we magnify God, we are on safe ground. We simply cannot say too much about God’s goodness and love. The most exaggerated things we can think of will still be far below what is actually the case.” (Spiritual Classics)

Think of one way to magnify God this week.