The Face of Faith

Psalm 63; Matthew 9

Psalm 63 is a Psalm that is filled with passionate praise of and worship directed towards God. In Matthew 9 Jesus goes on a healing rampage. He is healing people left, right and centre. In the middle of all the healing he calls Matthew to be his disciple.

The praise that David offers in Psalm 63 is a praise that is filled with undeniable passion and desire for God. It is praise of a person who truly knows God and knows his infinite greatness. There is nothing lack-lustre, routine or laissez-faire about the praise that is being offered to God. It is most certainly not a casual type of praising. Often I find myself getting into the routine of praising and that is not what God desires. It is very easy to go through the same routine every time that we are in church or in a time of worship. I pray the same, I sing the same, I clap the same. Praying, singing and clapping are all excellent ways to worship God but is it really worship when I clap a certain pattern because I am singing a certain song. Perhaps that is just keeping rhythm. God does not call me to keep rhythm for him. He does not need that. If I am going to clap my hands in praise to God and that happens to be in the same pattern as the last time that is fine. The difference is that I must be aware of why I am clapping my hands and thus be consciously praising God. If I am not then I am merely performing a habit. At the very end of Matthew chapter 9 Jesus makes a very well known statement; "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."

Jesus asks more of me than to simply go through the motions of worshipping. He asks me to be dedicated,to be genuine and to be passionate. If I am offering myself to serve Jesus and to work for him in his harvest field then I need to take the time to truly dedicate myself to Him. Psalm 63 begins with, "Oh God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you..." Today I am choosing to earnestly seek God. My passion is to live for and to serve God and now I must be willing to live out that passion. I must be willing to wholeheartedly seek God in earnest. That may be somewhat redundant but it is what must happen if I am to truly offer myself to God's service.

Dear God,

Yesterday you showed me that sacrifice is required to serve you. Today you have supplemented that lesson with instructions regarding the attitude that is required to serve you. The attitude that is required to endure sacrifice and to continue to push on. I am so thankful that you are ever forming me into who you want me to be. It is hard sometimes and even now as lessons are still fresh in my mind I can see how sacrifices will need to be made. I pray Lord that you will fill me with an earnest spirit. Fill me with a passion that will never allow worship and praise of you to become routine or old. Help me to seek you so earnestly that I will see every opportunity to worship you as a moment to be grasped with an exuberance that can only come from the Holy Spirit. I want to serve you and I pray that you will truly give an undeniable desire to seek you in earnest. Here I am for you Lord.

Amen