Sometimes I have a hard time praising God simply for who he IS.
I don't want to just praise Him for who He is because of how His qualities and character relate to me.
But it's hard not to do that.
I can praise Him because He's omnipotent...because He knows my future.
I can praise Him because He is gracious....because He extends it to me constantly.
I can praise Him because He is powerful....because I've seen Him do incredible things.
I can praise Him because He is omnipresent....because I talk to Him everywhere.
Am I SO self-centered that I can't even worship the Lord without relating it back to me? Or is that just how the finite mind works? Do we need that reference point to help us understand?
When i think about who He is, I think about what He's done for me. I think about how His qualities have affected my life.
But i want to have praise in my heart for who He is regardless of if I feel like I've seen the effect of those qualities in my own life. I want my heart to be stirred for Him simply because He is worthy, not because of how I've seen or felt Him.
It can be hard to praise Him for being beautiful without thinking about how I've seen His beauty displayed.
I want my heart to be captivated by His character. I want to be blinded with His beauty and all the things that He is, without thought for myself.
That's easy when it's another person. I can enjoy someone simply for who they are. Regardless of whether we're even friends or how it affects me, it's easy to see the qualities I like and praise them for just being who they are, who God made them to be.
But at times, it's really tough for me to just be in awe of His character without relating it back to me. It's not always like that. but it has been lately. Sometimes I am completely captivated by the sheer magnificence of His beauty and righteousness. But so often i feel like my worship and praise is self-centered and I find I'm thanking Him for what He's done in my life rather than just praising His character.
Does that make ANY sense? any thoughts on this?
i know i need to get back into some Piper desperately....
(and sorry for ending pretty much every sentence with a preposition. yes, I annoy even myself with that.)
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isn't beauty subjective? I don't think we can separate ourselves or our experience from... us. I think it's hard to observe or praise Him from any other perspective than our own. it's a personal relationship that we have together (with Him)
ReplyDeleteafter all, we love because He first loved us
You know....this blog reminds me a lot of a book i had to read for class. It was probably one of my favorites this semester. It focused on different attributes of God...and it just left me amazed. We as humans are so limited that we can't even begin to describe God accurately....and even when we try to describe him our attempt is fatal because God goes beyond even our limited language. It really just made me realize how much bigger God is than i even thought.
ReplyDeleteGod knows we're human and i think that sometimes he uses humanity for means of helping us see glimpses of Him. I think its beautiful that you can greater praise God because of what you've seen God do personally in you....but at the same time we can't just limit God to what WE have seen and what WE have felt....He's beyond that. He's beyond our finite minds. But you're right-it is important to praise God for who HE is...not just for what He's done personally in our individual lives.
"But i want to have praise in my heart for who He is regardless of if I feel like I've seen the effect of those qualities in my own life."--beautiful.