WEEKLY DEVOTION – DECEMBER 27, 2020

“A Call to Worship”

At the culmination of this year, we pause to offer our gifts of thanksgiving, and we come before the Lord with our worship and gratitude for the journey. The events of the year alone are enough to pause and praise, but in case we forget due to our busy schedules and awesome plans for our enjoyment and fulfillment, we have in the Word of God many “calls to worship.”

Psalm 100 is one such “call to worship.” The people of God’s grace and love are called upon to express sincere thanks for the wonderful blessings bestowed upon their lives by such a gracious Creator. This kind of worship is to be intentional and filled with joy. Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth, worship the Lord with gladness; come before him wit joyful songs. We find when we are filled with the joy of the Lord and with songs of praise, we have little or no time to complain or despair.

We approach our time of worship and praise knowing who we are and whose we are. We have not made our own way, but the Lord has made a way for us. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. And so, we come before our God, we enter the space spiritually, and sometimes physically, in order to show our overwhelming thanks for the good things the Lord has done for us. Enter his gates with thanksgivings and his courts wit praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. Why do we respond to the “call to worship”? For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Gracious God, your heart is filled with goodness and your hand provides my every need, I praise you and I thank you. Amen.

– Dumas Alexander Harshaw, Jr.