Who or what will you raise your hand for? Who will you follow and worship?

Luke 4:7 

If you worship me, it will all be yours.”

Who or what will you raise your hand for? Who will you follow and worship?

I never thought this blog would take the path it has gone, I'm just following the Lord's lead. I pray it continues to set examples of hope and a future!

Today there are many conflicts going on around the world, especially on our own little corner, called the United States. There are such great battles taking place in the spiritual realm that it is oozing out into our visible world. Again I repeat, keeping us distracted from the truth. 

People are taking hard stands on a wide variety of issues. They are focusing so much on the desire to be heard and to be correct, it becomes their mission, their main focus. Some are doing it, they believe, for what they deem right and just, many for the "cause of Christ". Issues like marriage equality, gender identity, baked goods, flags, gun control, and political correctness, just to name a few are over saturating the news and social media. They are constant topics of discussion almost any where you go. 

The issues of the day and the desire to take a side in order to be right and fit in is just another way of giving up and conforming to what is popular at the time, not exactly what is true. 

More and more people seem to value compatibility and like mindedness over individual expression, truth, and for the Christians out there, what God says, all out of fear of stepping on toes, not being politically correct, or looked upon as being negative. It has gotten so bad that  business managers, organization, and school administrations, heck, our own government, is creating a culture that either promotes conformity or contention. There is no more absolute truth or absolute morality. It's all about what seems or feels right to the group that makes the loudest noise! (There's that noise again that I mentioned in a previous post)

Speaking to Christians, have we forgotten who we are called to worship? Ya know, honor, glorify, idolize, revere, and serve above all others?  I've been talking a lot with my husband and a friend lately about worship and the way it is done. One way is freeing, another is binding.  Just because something sounds good, makes since, fits into the world's beliefs or feelings, doesn't mean it's of God. Be careful who and what you are worshiping, just because it sounds like God, if it goes against God  and his word, doesn't mean it is. There are well meaning Christians out there trying to make His word apply to their beliefs, it should be the other way around! 

"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."

(Matthew 6:33)

"If you worship me it will all be yours."

 (Luke 4:7)

"They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’”

(Matthew 15:9)

Luke 4:7 is a lie from the devil! Taking a verse out of the Bible to fit your own agenda instead of God's original plan is dangerous! If you put the verse in context you see that at this point in time, Jesus was being tested and tempted by the devil for 40 days in the desert. Those are the words of Satan himself!

We are called to seek His kingdom first! Not man made kingdoms. Putting Matthew 6:33 in context, God knows what we need. We don't need to set up new laws and set up special rights. If we seek Him first, we'll follow in his way and he'll provide what we need. We have to honestly look for Him, we can find Him in unexpected places. Sadly today, Matthew 15:9 reminds us how people (believers) are caught up in all of the man made rules and laws to make themselves seem right and all they are doing is worshiping God in vain. 

We need to go back to Lamentations and lift our hands to the Lord and worship Him, not our values, ideals, and beliefs. An actual honest lifting up our hands. My super self controlled introverted self needs to do this as well, not just as a sign and symbol of who we worship, Nazis did that. We are called to do this, as our physical actions reflect our heart and spiritual awareness of HIM. I'm learning that when hands are lifted to God in prayer or song we are releasing God's Holy Spirit, showing Him that He comes first and that we are open to him having His way and will in our lives. That is what our country needs. To lift up our hands together asking for HIS will and way. To be opened to how HE wants us to live, not how the world wants us to live. Inviting HIS presence back into the world instead of kicking him out! We can't be forgiven and blessed by Him if we don't seek and worship HIM! We ( I especially ) need to stop getting caught up in the outward  appearance of worship and let go and lift up our hands to Him admitting our need and dependence on HIM, not ourselves or the world! Our hope and future depends on God alone, not our man made laws. He alone is worthy of our praise.

40 Let us examine our ways and test them,
    and let us return to the Lord.
41 Let us lift up our hearts and our hands
    to God in heaven, and say:
42 “We have sinned and rebelled
    and you have not forgiven. 

Lamentation 3:40-42

May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.

Psalm 141:2

I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.

Psalm 63:4

WHO DO YOU CHOOSE TO WORSHIP? PROVE IT.