The atmosphere of respect

[SharonL]

My husband and I was having a conversation about how to worship. He was raised Catholic and me Protestant - he feels that to worship God you have to be on your knees - He says you don't worship a King by all the noise and raising hands, etc.

My thoughts on it are - I just am not a prayer warrior, I get on my knees and cannot think of prayers other than the same all the time - but I talk to God thoughout the day, God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit consumes my thoughts throughout the day. My husband says you don't treat God like a friend.

My thoughts go back to the time I was in a service and a Prophet from Africa was going through the crowd and giving Words from God - I heard him tell one man that God said He is your friend - that touched my heart so that I longed to hear that from God - there was about 700 people in the meeting and when the Preacher came to my side I was sitting in the middle - he came to me and said God said to tell you He is your friend - I will always cherish that and I look at God as my friend and I do not feel I disrespect Him for that. Opinions.

 

[Tamara224]

I was thinking about a similar situation the other day.

I was reading a lawyer's blog about how to use appropriate titles and honorifics when addressing judges: call them "your honor" in court and "judge" outside of court. Well, this guy said that unless you're related to the judge, you never call the judge by name. And he said this holds true even if a judge asks you to call him/her by name. He said that respect for the judge and his/her position means that we don't get too familiar with judges - even outside of the court.

I got to thinking about that and I think the guy was completely wrong. When you have real respect for a person, that respect dictates that you treat them the way they have indicated they want to be treated. If someone says "call me John" and you persist in calling him "your honor" instead... he doesn't feel respect, he feels that you haven't listened to him and that you don't care to treat him in a way that he wants to be treated. Now, part of the blog guy's reasoning was that unless you were friends with the judge before his/her appointment, you can't become friends with him/her. The idea there is that respect for a person's position precludes friendship. But what it essentially does is make respect for a position more important than respect for the person.

God is in the position of ultimate authority. But we don't love His position. We love Him. We love the Persons that is God. What we have to ask ourselves is.... are we loving God enough, and do we respect Him enough to call Him by what He asks to be called?

Paul said that now that we have adoption as heirs, we can call God "Abba, Father." That's the best friend we can have. It indicates a close, personal relationship. God said that Abraham was His friend and we all are partakers in the promises to Abraham. It was Abraham's faith, which was called righteousness, that made him God's friend. So we know that our faith - our trust in God - makes us His friends, too.

God wants us to call Him our friend. He wants us to have that close, trusting relationship with Him. If we let our "respect for His position" stand in the way of true respect for who He is and what He asks from us.... then, IMHO, we're not really respecting Him.

 

[JRSut1000]

David worshipped God dancing in a tunic! There are MANY ways to give worship to God. Sometimes it is in quietness and stillness ("Be still and know that I am God") and sometimes it is loudly as is seen in Psalm 150.

I think the main thing is to make sure that our worship is in "spirit and in truth" and not just a fleshly show for man.

 

[Tamara224]

Friend of God - YouTube

 

[Faulty]

It's said that when James, the half-brother of Jesus, died. His knees were calloused from kneeling for prayer. George Muller wore grooves in the floor by his bed from his continual sessions of prayer.

However, E.M. Bounds was also a prayer warrior and he spent his prayer time seated in a certain chair and nearly wore off the arms of the chair through constant grabbing, thrusting and rubbing while in prayer.

No one can convince me that Bounds was not truly worshipping God during prayer, simply because his positioning. If position were a key for worship to be successful, then surely the scripture would tell us what that position is, instead of a big game of 'guess'.

That said, each of these men had their preferred position for prayer, and there is no fault to be found in that.

 

[Yitzchak]

There is room for both.




I think Tamarra had it right. We should not just take educated guesses about what God wants. We can tune in to what God is wanting from us at that time.


Where I see the problem coming in is when people have an experience with God that they can relate to and then think everyone , every where , and at all times has to relate to God only in that way.

We don't do this with people. For example , there is this one guy from a church that we used to go to. we knew him for a couple years and would see him a few times a week at church functions. But he only related to us by humor. Now we enjoy a good joke and like to laugh. But it is the only thing he ever did when he talked to us. The relationship remained shallow because this guy never wanted to get serious and get to know us. This seemed dysfunctional to me. When ever we tried to have a serious conversation , he would make it into a joke. It was annoying.

Even though I am very familiar with my wife , I will still respect her space on certain things. There are times when we have special occasions like an anniversary. Times of romance, times for humor, times for serious conversations about problems we need to solve together. It would be a strange relationship if all I ever wanted to talk about was our friendship. If no matter what she wanted to talk about , I interrupted and would keep saying you're my friend.

God does not change , but there is a lot more to God than just relating to Him one way all the time. God is a God of beauty , a God of Justice , a God of Love , etc. I even think that God likes humor and sometimes it is o.k. to joke with God. But there are times when jokes are not appropriate.

I think that it is the extreme of saying that God would never relate to us as friends , that is the problem here. There is room for times of seriousness. But there are also times of friendship with God. We are always friends with God. But sometimes it is not the time for relating in that way.

Bottom line. God is our friend. That is always true.

 

[JRSut1000]

There is room for both.

There is room for times of seriousness. But there are also times of friendship with God. We are always friends with God. But sometimes it is not the time for relating in that way.

Bottom line. God is our friend. That is always true.

So true! We serve a holy God and must never forget that, but He is a very intimate passionate God who enjoys fellowship with us because He loves us so much!

 

[whatfor]

God is our friend but we need to remember He is the creator of everything.
If we think to much of Him just being a friend we start thinking we can do what we want not what we He commands.

Worship is not a position but a place in our heart.
Everything in life should be worship to Him.

 

[tturt]

Being quiet doesn’t always mean revere and loud doesn’t always mean worshiping.

 

[Deba]

I think this is a matter of personal preference, that has been painted in shades of legalism.

I love the look on people's (unbelievers) faces when I say that every morning I sit in that chair (facing the sunrise on the veranda of the cafe), drinking my coffee, reading my Bible and hanging out with God. We try and make it so much more difficult than it really is.

Whatever you do out of honest and sincere desire to be with God, He will honor.

 

[JRSut1000]

Deba, that is great too! Like I said, 'we' tend to put God in a box, but really there is just so much diversity within Scripture on how He spoke through people and how He used people and of course how people worshiped Him.

I mean think about it, people from every nation and tongue and cultures will be worshiping Him, that makes for a lot of diversity and how awesome it will be!

 

[pdudgeon]

in the same way that we relate differently to our earthly fathers at different times, the same applies to God.

there are times when awe and bowing down are appropriate for worshiping His majesty and greatness, and there are times when it is appropriate to climb up in His lap for a hug.

 

[he4rty]

Not read all the posts but this is my thoughts on this,

At a recent prayer meeting the pastor said about Jesus praying to God and always addressed him as father, so he said we too should show respect and address him properly.

This sat well with me as at a pervious meeting somewhere else the person leading prayers started dear daddygod, this just felt so uncomfortable to me and not the right way to approach God.

So personnely I don't think it matters if your kneeling sitting or standing for me its using the right term of address.

 

[probinson]

Not read all the posts but this is my thoughts on this,

At a recent prayer meeting the pastor said about Jesus praying to God and always addressed him as father, so he said we too should show respect and address him properly.

Father is how I usually speak to God.

This sat well with me as at a pervious meeting somewhere else the person leading prayers started dear daddygod, this just felt so uncomfortable to me and not the right way to approach God.

Why? I find it to be quite an honor when my children come to me and call me "Daddy". In fact, I sometimes will still call my natural father "Daddy", and I'm 33 years old!

It's worth noting that Jesus was the first one to call God "Father", and not everyone was pleased with that.

So while I personally do not call God, "Daddy", I have no problem with those who do. "Daddy" is a term of respect and honor, just as much as Father is.

So personnely I don't think it matters if your kneeling sitting or standing for me its using the right term of address.

I think the "right" term of address is one where we speak to God from our hearts.

 

[mourningdove~]

Originally Posted by he4rty

Not read all the posts but this is my thoughts on this,

At a recent prayer meeting the pastor said about Jesus praying to God and always addressed him as father, so he said we too should show respect and address him properly.
​

Father is how I usually speak to God.



Originally Posted by murjahel

This sat well with me as at a pervious meeting somewhere else the person leading prayers started dear daddygod, this just felt so uncomfortable to me and not the right way to approach God.
​

Why? I find it to be quite an honor when my children come to me and call me "Daddy". In fact, I sometimes will still call my natural father "Daddy", and I'm 33 years old!

It's worth noting that Jesus was the first one to call God "Father", and not everyone was pleased with that.

So while I personally do not call God, "Daddy", I have no problem with those who do. "Daddy" is a term of respect and honor, just as much as Father is.



Originally Posted by murjahel

So personnely I don't think it matters if your kneeling sitting or standing for me its using the right term of address.
​

I think the "right" term of address is one where we speak to God from our hearts.

Where did you get those quotes in your post from 'murjahel' ... ?????

I don't see where he's even a poster in THIS thread??????

(What's up with that?????)

 

[probinson]

Where did you get those quotes in your post from 'murjahel' ... ?????

I don't see where he's even a poster in THIS thread??????

(What's up with that?????)

Oops. My bad. I had copied and pasted the quote tag from another thread where I was responding to murjahel prior to responding in this thread. I usually catch it when I do that, but I missed it this time.

It's fixed now.

 

[gratefulgrace]

God is our friend but He is NOT our pal or a good old boy.