Worshiping in Everyday Occasions

"When you were under the fig tree, I saw you." (John 1:48)

Worshiping in Everyday Occasions

We presume that we would be ready for battle if confronted with a great crisis, but it is not the crisis that builds us - it simply reveals what we are made of already. Do you find yourself saying, "If God calls me to battle, of course I will rise to the occasion"? Yet you won't rise to the occasion unless you have done so on God's training ground. If you are not doing the task that is closest to you now, which God has engineered into your life, when the crisis comes, instead of being fit for battle, you will be revealed as being unfit. Crises always reveal a person's true character.

A private relationship of worshiping God is the greatest essential element of spiritual fitness. The time will come, as Nathanael experienced in this passage, that a private "fig tree" life will no longer be possible. Everything will be out in the open, and you will find yourself to be of no value there if you have not been worshiping in everyday occasions in your own home. If your worship is right in your private relationship with God, then when He sets you free, you will be ready. It is in the unseen life, which only God saw, that you have become perfectly fit. And when the strain of the crisis comes, you can be relied upon by God.

God's training ground, where the Christian weapons are found, is the hidden, personal, worshiping life of the saint.

STAND FIRM!

1 Corinthians 10:12-13 (NIV)
"So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall! No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."

Temptations are like lions. They slowly creep up on you, silently, patiently waiting for the right time, and then BAM!, they get you at your weakest most vulnerable times. These are the times when you get to thinking, "Wow, I've been a pretty good Christian lately. I've done this...I'm really involved with that..." and so on. They get you at the times when you're just surfing the internet, and one thing leads to the other or "just talking" to "a friend" but in all honesty, that "friend" is someone you're really crushin' on OR...well, you get the idea. Before things really take a slide, you then start saying to yourself, "I got this." Soon you start making up excuses, trying to convince yourself, sayin' something along the lines of, "It's not like this is wrong or anything," or, "I'm not hurting anyone." But it's just how that verse in 1 Corinthians 6:12 says, "Everything is permissble...but not everything is beneficial."

Temptations, they'll always be around, but it's your choice whether to shake it off and continue to walk in step with God or give in and hurt Him. God is so good, that even when you're going through tempting situations, He gives you a way out. But again, it's your choice to make your escape. If there's a temptation that seems overwhelming, chances are, you shouldn't have placed yourselves in that situation in the first place. So with all that said, always keep your guards up for anything out there that could tempt you. Don't be like zebras minding their own business, thinking everythings' fine and dandy, only to find a lion's about ready to pounce on and devour it's next meal. And remember, if ever you do fall, don't just lie there! (God didn't send down Jesus Christ to die for ALL your sins -past, present, and future- for you to just lie there in regret and shame.) Get right back up and show Him the kind of love you can offer Him! =]

Hopefully this serves as a reminder while everyone's at back in school. Read over those chapters to see what else God might want to say to you for your life.