photo credit: voyageAnatolia.blogspot.comIn my prayer life, through the early years, I found that when all was going well, when I had enough money to pay my bills and the cars were working fine, the washing machine was not acting up nor was the dish-washer leaking, then my prayer life would wane a considerable amount. I found that I would go days without pausing and thanking my Father in Heaven for His blessings and favor. I also noticed, after many years of walking through the dessert of stupidity, that I would find myself on my knees only when things were going wrong and when my world was falling apart. After noticing this trend in my Spiritual walk the Lord showed me that my behaviour was similiar to that of the children of Isreal. God would bless this Nation of people by hand feeding them day-by-day in the wilderness, their clothes grew as the kids grew and their shoes lasted for 40 plus years! I would also say that they witnessed the ten plagues which God brought upon Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea as well! However, they rarely praised God for His protection or provisions in their lives. As a matter of fact they usually took them for granted or they grumbled and complained.
Now, let us not get arragant. I can assure you that everyone of us has fallen into this arena of not being thankful. When the Lord graciously brought this to my attention I asked for His forgiveness and also requested that He would always make me mindful of His blessings that are around me and to also give me the discipline, in the good times, to pause and give Him thanks and praise when everything seemed to be going right. I believe it really pleases the Lord when His kids take time to praise Him in the good times rather than the Lord having to allow some of the challenges in life come our way so we will bend our knees and fellowship with Him. I believe it touches our Father deeply when we make a dedicated decision to thank Him when all seems well rather than us only calling on Him to fix what is broken or messed up!
It reminds me of the story in the New Testement where Jesus Himself tells of the ten lepers. He lovingly touched and prayed for their healing. All ten were instantly and Miraculously healed! Jesus told them to present themselves to the Jewish priest, which was a custom of the Jews which you can find in the book of Leviticus. All ten of them ran to the Priest but the story tells us that only one of these cleansed lepers came back to Jesus.
As he was running to the city he may have thought about what Jesus did for him. I am not talking about the healing itself. I am taLkng about the restoration to his family and friends. You see, the lepers were put out of the camp because they were considered “un-clean.” They had to leave their family, friends, jobs, and life as they knew it because this disease would spread to others and infect the whole city. Jesus also took away his shame. You see when people would walk close to a leper, th leper would have to yell a warning to the passer-by, “I am a leper, un-clean, turn away from me.” They most likely had not been touched by another human-being in years until Jesus reached out with His loving hands and they felt the warmth of His unconditonal love. While he was running to be “officially” pronouced whole by the Priest the Bible tells us that he stopped, turned and began running back towards our Lord! He went back to worship and to adore the one that gave him his life back! This man was a, “Mountain Top Worshipper! He could have ran on with the other nine that were healed and continued running until he embraced his family again but he did’nt. Right in the middle of his excitement, his blessing, his healing, his renewed life he made a choice to pause and praise! God’s Word tells us in John Chapeter 17 verse 15 that this man, “turned back and with a LOUD voice glorified God, and fell down at His feet giving Him thanks.” Jesus went on to tell the leper in verse 19, “arise and go your way: your faith has made you whole.”
I want to be this kind of worshiper. Right in the middle of God’s belssings, right in the center of His favor I want to lift a loud and obvious voice for all to hear how good my Lord is to me! I don’t want my Father to feel that He has to use difficult circumstances to constantly get my attention. I want to shout from the Mountain- Top, that God is so good to me and I will bless Him in the good times and in the difficult times of life!
Surely you have a desire to be a, “Mountain- Top Worshipper? Surely you would like to touch the very heart of God?
May the Lord give you the foresight to thank and praise Him when things are going well rahter than a trip through the dusty, hot, lonely and dry desserts of life!
Be a Mountain-Top Worshipper!!!
JJCLAY
