Day 261: Worship 24/7

Revelation 4; Nehemiah 5:1-7:3; Psalm 99

So there are some crazy things that John sees in his visions in Revelation. Animals with eyes all over their body--weird. However, these strange creatures do something that is very important for us to notice: "Day and night they never stopped singing, 'Holy Holy Holy is The Lord, the all powerful God, who was and is and is coming!'" They never stopped! They worshipped constantly. You and I need to do that, too. But wait, don't we have jobs and lives? We can't sit in church 24/7. True, we can't. But if our worship is reserved for the hour we spend in church every week, then we are misunderstanding what God expects of us and what is truly worship. To praise or worship God means to give credit, give glory, give utmost respect and admiration to him, not a few well selected songs that go with the sermon. Praise and worship is an attitude of our hearts, not a time spent singing. These beasts in Revelation were constantly singing, yes, but what they are doing is worshipping The Lord, praising him. I think it would be naive to say that God wants us to sing 24/7; but an attitude of praise and worship is something that I do believe he wants from us. It's a powerful way to live.

Nehemiah reveals an important quality of good leadership: caring sacrificially for those beneath us. The leaders had been taking advantage of their position and again money and power through taxes, slavery, and rape. Previous governors had asked for an allowance and food paid by the people, requiring them to pay more than necessary. Nehemiah rebukes these people for their actions. His reason? "We must honor our God by the way we live, so the Gentiles can't find fault with us." How we live our lives shows what is most important to us, and God should be most important. We are to live holy lives, blameless, and without fault, so that others will see our lives and give glory to our God.

The story of Nehemiah and the wall gets even more interesting. Some dudes send for him to come and talk about stuff outside of the city. Nehemiah realizes that they just wanted to stop the work of rebuilding the wall. The wall represented strength and the fact that they were rebuilding something was going to show that God was on their side, so it was super important that they complete it. Slowing or stopping the work would give other nations a chance at overpowering them. I think there are people today who seek to intentionally or unintentionally hinder the work of The Lord. Christians sometimes get caught up in these distractions, thinking they need to appease everyone or explain themselves, when we should just keep going. Nehemiah, through this process asks God to give him strength and when the wall is finally finished, their enemies "felt helpless, because they knew that our God had helped us rebuild the wall." God got the glory in a powerful way because they stuck to their plan and didn't get side-tracked by distractions.

This psalm repeats the phrase, "Only you are God!" Sometimes we can get caught up in something else that we think is important and put it before The Lord in our lives. Anything that becomes more important than our relationship with God, has become a god. This psalm reminds us that the only one, the only thing, that is truly worthy of such a title is The Lord.