Don't Gimli and Virginia look so peaceful and content in this picture? They are resting with each other, enjoying the warmth of the sun. You might even go so far as to say they are "basking" in it. They are resting in the radiance of the sun. They chose to be in the place in our home where the sun shines the brightest so they could get the most sunlight possible. They don't expect the sun to find them wherever they are- they moved themselves to where it was already shining.
This picture reminds me of what worshiping God should look like: Resting in God's presence. It sounds so easy when you boil it down to such a simple phrase, yet many believers don't actively worship on a regular basis. This is something I have struggled with for years. I have looked at other people at church who seem to really be worshiping passionately and thought, "Worship just doesn't come naturally to me like that", or "I'm just not as emotive as they are". Or I've found myself in churches that didn't have music that I preferred, so used that as an excuse to disengage. The truth is, I have been fearful and lazy. Worship isn't something that just happens automatically. Just like Gimli and Virginia had to move themselves to the place where the sun was shining to receive the warmth, we also must move ourselves, readjust our heart and mindset to be focused on Jesus. We can't just stand there and wait for ourselves to spontaneously erupt in worship. To worship, we must intentionally choose to do so by engaging our hearts and minds.
There are lots of reasons I have chosen not to engage my heart and mind in worship. I've disengaged at times when I've been in an emotionally fragile place and didn't want to embarrass myself by crying at church. I've avoided worshiping purely because I didn't want to put the work into engaging my heart and mind. I chose to just glaze over, sing the songs, and think about what I'd eat for lunch that day. I've believed a lie that I have to be all put together before I can really worship God, so felt unworthy to be in His presence, and avoided Him. I've had really big stuff going on in my life that has monopolized my thoughts. Instead of casting those things before the Lord, I've spent time I could have been worshiping Him just needlessly worrying and fretting over them. Most of the time, though, I've just been so concerned about how I'd appear to the people around me, not wanting to be thought too spiritual, not spiritual enough, a faker, a weirdo, or any other undesirable description I can come up with.
Whatever the reason, the one who has lost out in these situations is myself. When we enter the presence of God, we cannot help but be blessed by Him. If we tell Him, "I love you", He will always respond with, "I love you too". How much of a difference would just feeling that love, peace, and comfort made in all of those situations? My prayer is that every opportunity I get, whether in the car on the way to work, at church, in my personal time of prayer and Bible reading, that I will truly rest in God's presence and worship Him with my whole heart.
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