Seeking a Feeling is not Worship - September 9, 2013

Job 23:7-10
7 There an upright man could argue with him, and I would be acquitted forever by my judge.
8 “Behold, I go forward, but he is not there, and backward, but I do not perceive him;
9 on the left hand when he is working, I do not behold him; he turns to the right hand, but I do not see him.
10 But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold.

Isaiah 45:15
15 Truly, you are a God who hides himself, O God of Israel, the Savior.

God has promised repeatedly, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." Yet God has not promised "you will always feel my presence." In fact, God admits that sometimes he hides his face from us. (Isaiah 45:15)

There are times when he appears to be MIA, missing-in-action, in your life.

This is a normal part of the testing and maturing of your friendship with God. Every Christian goes through it at least once, and usually several times. It is painful and disconcerting, but it is absolutely vital for the development of your faith.

The most common mistake Christians make in worship today is seeking an experience rather than seeking God. They look for a feeling, and if it happens, they conclude that they have worshiped. Wrong! In fact, God often removes our feelings so we won't depend on them. Seeking a feeling, even the feeling of closeness to Christ, is not worship.

Just as there's a time in which we live by ourselves and not with our parents, God evaluates our faith to see if we could progress further, without constant presence. Once we encounter the feeling of the Holy Spirit, our hearts feel revitalized, as we receive comfort from Him. As our God is a jealous God, He wants more from us, but in a way that we must seek after Him. It's all on us, He'll never force us to praise Him, just as our parents would never do things for us as we grow older, capable of making our own decisions. They lead us, just as God leads us to green pastures but it's up to us to drink. Once He feels absent, it's just another point in time where He challenges us. He tests us, for our own benefit, so that these struggles and hardships may result to us being a stronger Christian. He doesn't want us to rely on our feelings, rather our faith alone.

God has promised that he will never leave or abandon us, he will always be there no matter what situation you are in. But what we need to realize is that we will not always feel his presence. At first this may be hard to believe, but God does everything for a purpose. He does this to test our faith and ultimately become more spiritually mature in the process. Of course nobody wants to experience this and have God's presence in a sense abandon us, but we must go through this in order to develop our faith and become closer to God. When you experience God not in your presence at times where you may need him most, there could be doubts about if there really is a God. And that is normal, we are all human and most people want explanations and facts before believing in something. But what we always need to remember is that there IS a God and that he will never abandon us, and you will feel his presence again in the future. Just because he may not be there right now, does not mean he will not be in the future. His love is never ending, and He will ultimately lead us to eternal life. So remember not to have doubts about Him!

Todays devotional is about God always being on our side and never leaving us. Right now it may seem pretty obvious that God will always be with us and no matter what happens He will always be with us. However, when we start to go through troubles, hard times, and we feel like we're drifting from God. We don't feel the same when we're praising Him or whatever it may be. During these times, it will be difficult to believe that God is always with you. I am sure that everyone has gone through this stage or will go through this stage. It may feel like God is MIA from our lives but like it said in the other devos. It is all part of God's plan, there is always a reason for something to happen.

I will get the setlist out as soon as I can just waiting for some details
have a greaaaaaaat weeek

Wow aren't we selfish. I know I am. For a long time I looked for a feeling or a major change in my life. But this devo also brings up an excellent point. Are we worshipping God to glorify him, or for personal gain. As stated, God will be with us through good times and bad, our own "feeling" irrelevant. Things brings a new meaning to what "not going through the motions" means. When we do overflow at retreats and cry our hearts out and whatnot, it's good for feeling close to God and sensitive to his will and whatnot, but who is all that crying really for? When we get that worked up once a season only at retreats and events, it's a start, but our goal should be that we feel just as close and sensitive to his will at all times. We shouldn't need a retreat to have that kinda experience, in fact, it's almost insulting to God that we can push our close encounters with him into a couple day event. So while we know that God is always near to us, stop worshipping God to feel better about yourself, rather, worship God with an innocent and full heart.

When feeling low, that's when most try and seek God and sometimes we fully do feel the presence of him, sometimes we feel lost and empty.
Always know that he will never leave you...as mentioned in today's devo.
In order for us to to grow, there must be some breaking down androgen building back stronger. Don't expect to always be in a spiritual high.
Things get though when busy and it starts to get stressful and at that time you may not be on fire for him at that certain time....but do not give up on him; He never gives up on you.
Have a consistent and healthy routine in reading God's word everyday. That way, you will have something with you for the day.
Know that feeling lost is a natural thing. Soon you will find yourself back on track do dont ever give up.
Growth doesnt happen in one night or a retreat. It's the consistent patten(rhythm) you keep with God.

~Audrey~

When we go to retreats or similar events, it's easier to feel closer to God and all of a sudden we're full of energy to live as a christian and worship and glorify God because of the general atmosphere. Christian life seems so good and easy when you get that kind of spiritual high, but we need to understand that it is just a temporary feeling. Feelings can change quickly and drastically, depending on the circumstances, and we aren't always in an environment where these feelings come out. And when we are in environments where that spiritual high doesn't last, we might feel that God isn't with us anymore.
This is part of the problem with correlating our faith with our feelings.
Let's seek God himself, not just the feeling of God. Let's truly worship God when he is with us, not just when we feel that he is with us. Let's live as followers of Christ, not people who want to feel like a follower of Christ.

I think the painful experiences that we all eventually will endure at one point in our journey with God, is something inevitable and somehow in some ways necessary. We might not like the pain or the suffering but God is using that to help us grow, mature, learn and experience. I think pain can teach us things that we may not learn from joy, it's not an easy experience, but it's an experience that will hopefully teach us something that we could have not learned through any other way. We have to trust that God does everything for a reason, and that nothing He does is arbitrary, even when He seems absent in our lives, He is ALWAYS there, and He knows more than anyone what's best for us.
Also, when we seek an experience rather than seek God, I feel like that's more for pursing more worldy things. Such as feeling good personally, and to help US feel better, and for our own advancement. I think seeking God in worship is more of connecting or communicating with God through worship, praise etc. like a method of getting to know God more.
When we worship always seeking "an experience" or feeling, I feel like we might become disappointed when that doesn't happen, but when we continuously seek God we will always be fulfilled by His Love.


10 Teach me to do your will,
for you are my God;
may your good Spirit
lead me on level ground.
Psalm 143:10

Well I don't have much time atm so I'll try to rush this in.

So the topic is Seeking God is not Worship or a form of Worship in itself. Worship begins once we've found or did whatever we had to do and start serving in his name. I mean we could be worshiping God while searching for him, but the search itself is not a form of worship. That being said, having an absence of God within our lives or failing to see Him isn't really something we can easily dismiss. I think the overall conclusion that I drew from this devotional was that we can't see our "intention to seek for God" as a form of worship but rather our walking down that path of "DOING things for God."

That being said, intention counts, but direction changes things.

Seeking a feeling is not always worshipping.
How true.
God has admitted to us that he even hides from us at certain times and there is nothing we can do; we can't demand him to be there constantly there for us. In these cases, I'm reminded of those situations in which something was so constant in my life, that I'm used to it/her/him being around that I never fully appreciate it.
I'm sure God has his good intentions when he's absent from our lives at times and the best we can do is to have faith that he hasn't, that he won't abandon us.

We, as the worship team should keep faith close by, and never doubt that he's always hearing our praise and worship everyday.