6 January -- Worship

(click the link above to read the entry from My Utmost for His Highest)

Additional Scriptures: Genesis 12:8, Genesis 13:12 (13:8-12), Genesis 28:16-19, Joshua 16:1-2

Hey, remind me to do these in the morning because I've waited all day and it is so difficult to find a quiet moment. I'm torn by so many other things to do -- good things and others, well questionable ("are you ready for some football?") -- and now I'm being pulled in different directions.

Okay, but that's what today's devotion was about, I think. At least one of the things -- the pull of the world. Where we "pitch our tent" is critical. It reminds me of the situation that occurs just a few verses after today's devotion verse when Lot pitches his tent toward Sodom. The contrast is stark. Bethel represents God and is a dwelling of God. Bethel is where later Jacob makes his covenant with God. After Israel finally enters the promised land, Bethel is the land of the tribe of Joseph. Hai (or Ai) represents the world. So instead of pitching his tent toward the world (like Lot and Sodom), Abraham pitched his tent between God and the world.

That is how our life should be -- a continual balance between the Lord and the world. We exist (we must to receive our inheritance) in the world, but we must not be a part of the world. Still, we flit from one aspect of our lives to another -- the person we show others on Sundays may be very different from the person we are at work or at home. We convince ourselves that a rest from _______ (fill in the blank with whatever you'd like) would do us good, but that's not what God is looking for from his children. That is not the example that Christ left us. We need to balance worship, waiting and work perfectly together so that it seems a seamless experience.

I can envision the experience of having the noise of the world surrounding me like at work or school, having a moment of peace envelop me and then being able to offer a prayer of gratitude all in just a few seconds. I'm sure that has happened before, but have I recognized it as such? The goal of discipleship is make those moments more frequent and useful in our relationship with God. If we cannot see them, they cannot touch us and help us grow our testimony (and the testimony of others).

And further, those experiences and blessings that we do receive and recognize must be shared. We cannot hoard them. I know that sacred things are not to be spoken of lightly, but there are many testimony building experiences that can be shared if we tune into the Spirit. So a pattern emerges. If we combine worship, waiting and work we will know the right times to share the right things with others. We must give these blessing back to God in the form of our service and testimonies because we are how He blesses other people.

A phenomenal article the discusses the need to bestow our gifts freely is "Work We Must But the Lunch Is Free," by Hugh Nibley. In it Nibley tells that, "Brigham Young often reminded the saints, God has placed whatever we have in our hands only to see what we would do with it- whether we would waste, hoard, or bestow it freely."

I'm going to look around my house and my spiritual life and list all my "things." Then I'm plan to determine what I'm hoarding, what I'm wasting and what I'm bestowing freely. I can already tell you that the last items will not be the longest list, but I can be with some effort. What am I ready to bestow freely? What are we ready to use to bless others?