How to find the effort?

[Presbyterian Continuist]

Matthew Henry Commentary
1:10-15 Judea was desolate, and their cities burned. This awakened them to bring sacrifices and offerings, as if they would bribe God to remove the punishment, and give them leave to go on in their sin. Many who will readily part with their sacrifices, will not be persuaded to part with their sins. They relied on the mere form as a service deserving a reward. The most costly devotions of wicked people, without thorough reformation of heart and life, cannot be acceptable to God. He not only did not accept them, but he abhorred them. All this shows that sin is very hateful to God. If we allow ourselves in secret sin, or forbidden indulgences; if we reject the salvation of Christ, our very prayers will become abomination.

The vanity seems to be not in the worship but what they assume are sacrifices to God, given in the spirit of strange fire. I know what you mean but I don’t believe songs should be the target of your discontent. Except where the worship leaders are being the unfaithful ones.

I understand completely, and I am not panning worship as such. Worshiping God for His goodness and majesty is appropriate and brings much pleasure to God and the holy angels. We see the wonderful picture of a numberless multitude before the throne of God giving loud and joyful worship to Him.
Therefore it is right to bless God with all our hearts.

But this worship is what I would call "disinterested" worship, in the sense that we are not worshiping God for self-interest. Don't confuse "disinterested" with "uninterested" the two have totally different meanings.

"disinterested" worshipers worship God for who He is and what He has done for us. Worshipers with self-interest are worshiping God for selfish reasons. In a sense they are bribing God by saying, "If we worship you, then we expect your blessing". They want God to reward them in return for their worship.

The Scripture is true for believers that "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." This means that our church members, regardless of denomination, need to keep short accounts with God and that all known sin needs to be confessed with a willingness to forsake it. This does not mean that believers have to sinlessly perfect, but there needs to be a hatred of sin in themselves, and absolute love for everyone else.

This is a sad fact, but it would take just one or two undisciplined gossips in a church to quench the Spirit totally, grieve Him so that He is blocked from doing anything. Then the worship becomes a sounding brass and a clanging cymbal.

It is sad that so many good believers are mourning over the lack of sinners being saved, sick people healed, good people dying before their time, and people suffering from demonic influence not set free, in spite of their desire to worship God from their hearts. What they don't know is that there are secret sinners in their midst whom God can see, and not even the good and faithful church leaders can't.

The Scripture says, "Everything by prayer and supplication, with thankfulness [joyful worship giving thanks to God] and the peace of God that passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."

 

[~Zao~]

I understand completely, and I am not panning worship as such. Worshiping God for His goodness and majesty is appropriate and brings much pleasure to God and the holy angels. We see the wonderful picture of a numberless multitude before the throne of God giving loud and joyful worship to Him.
Therefore it is right to bless God with all our hearts.

But this worship is what I would call "disinterested" worship, in the sense that we are not worshiping God for self-interest. Don't confuse "disinterested" with "uninterested" the two have totally different meanings.

"disinterested" worshipers worship God for who He is and what He has done for us. Worshipers with self-interest are worshiping God for selfish reasons. In a sense they are bribing God by saying, "If we worship you, then we expect your blessing". They want God to reward them in return for their worship.

The Scripture is true for believers that "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." This means that our church members, regardless of denomination, need to keep short accounts with God and that all known sin needs to be confessed with a willingness to forsake it. This does not mean that believers have to sinlessly perfect, but there needs to be a hatred of sin in themselves, and absolute love for everyone else.

This is a sad fact, but it would take just one or two undisciplined gossips in a church to quench the Spirit totally, grieve Him so that He is blocked from doing anything. Then the worship becomes a sounding brass and a clanging cymbal.

It is sad that so many good believers are mourning over the lack of sinners being saved, sick people healed, good people dying before their time, and people suffering from demonic influence not set free, in spite of their desire to worship God from their hearts. What they don't know is that there are secret sinners in their midst whom God can see, and not even the good and faithful church leaders can't.

The Scripture says, "Everything by prayer and supplication, with thankfulness [joyful worship giving thanks to God] and the peace of God that passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."

Perhaps from the beginning you and I are saying the same thing. But I don’t find the video in question soulish because it sounds like a teaching that every praise must be to our God. Rather than a hype to work a frenzy. I was in a church once where those gossips were working to quench the spirit from the worship session y refusing to sing altogether. That left the pastor and I the only ones in the church still singing. I don’t believe the blessing left either one of us because we were still fighting thru for God. To me it’s on the individual and not on the congregation to seek and find the blessing within the church and within themselves. But I apologize @Oscarr for going off on a bad memory. We are all in this same boat together and maybe some of us will have to learn to walk on water to get to shore. Idk.

This is a sad fact, but it would take just one or two undisciplined gossips in a church to quench the Spirit totally, grieve Him so that He is blocked from doing anything. Then the worship becomes a sounding brass and a clanging cymbal.

I don’t see the Holy Spirit as being so fickle. He is not fooled or mocked. The results of pushing thru can be astounding.

 

[Lost4words]

I believe in God, there's no doubt about that but I can't seem to find the effort to do more worshipping. I love listening to others talk about Jesus (even when someone just handed me a leaflet on the street and said "Jesus loves you" made so happy and joyful) but doing something myself is a whole other story. When I read the Bible, I manage couple of pages and then I get kinda bored and put it away and start doing something else and it's the same with praying. I try to pray at least every night before I go to bed but I'm not sure I'm doing it right and most of the time it feels like I'm praying just to get it over and done with and sometimes I don't even know what to say so I just pray The Lord's Prayer. I'm really worried about this. Has anyone else ever struggled with this? What should I do? Should I just keep reading The Bible and pray more and it will change?

This is me too. Many times.

May God bless you

 

[Mark Dohle]

I believe in God, there's no doubt about that but I can't seem to find the effort to do more worshipping. I love listening to others talk about Jesus (even when someone just handed me a leaflet on the street and said "Jesus loves you" made so happy and joyful) but doing something myself is a whole other story. When I read the Bible, I manage couple of pages and then I get kinda bored and put it away and start doing something else and it's the same with praying. I try to pray at least every night before I go to bed but I'm not sure I'm doing it right and most of the time it feels like I'm praying just to get it over and done with and sometimes I don't even know what to say so I just pray The Lord's Prayer. I'm really worried about this. Has anyone else ever struggled with this? What should I do? Should I just keep reading The Bible and pray more and it will change?

Perhaps you are called to sit in silence. Our walk with the Lord is a journey, and as our intimacy grows, and the Lord comes close, it can be felt like an absence. When what might be happening is that your images are dropping away. Trust Jesus on your walk, and if all you can do is to simply sit in silence before God's presence, that is not a sign of trouble but of growth. Being in the desert means the path is not there, we have to take the next step in faith. Yet there is much life in the desert, and there will be many oases, God's healing balm to be refreshed.

Peace
mark

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