What I Learned

As I mentioned in an earlier post, our church held a Fall Women's Retreat this weekend. Our Women's Ministry hosted the event and worked very hard to offer women a place to worship and learn. The theme of this year's retreat was "The Heart of Worship." And these are the lessons God challenged me with.

1. True worship, is from the heart. A desire to exclaim that HE IS HOLY. What we do to please Him, is a result of our worship. All the works we do, the singing of songs, the giving of tithes and offerings are RESULTS of our worship. It's a heart thing.

2. I have created idols in my life without realizing it. ANYTHING that is more important than spending time with God is an idol. What do I do the first thing in the morning? Do I immediately get a cup of coffee, and THEN pray for His will for my day? Do I push aside His Word and read for pleasure? Do I check my email before I spend time with Him? Do I worship my free time?

3. Delayed obedience is disobedience. If I don't say yes right away, but choose to consider it, or say, "I will later, Lord", that is not obedience.

4. I am a vessel to be filled with His Living Water. I may be a plastic cup, or Waterford Crystal, depending on His purpose for my life. I'm not to envy the crystal if my purpose is to be the plastic cup. And the water MUST be replenished or it becomes stagnate. As a believer, the Living Water is His love, His guidance, and His Word.

5. Do I believe God, or just believe IN Him? If the woman who had an issue of blood believed just touching Jesus's garment would heal her, and it did, how can I not believe He is what He says He is and can do what He says He can do? It may not be on my time table. She waited 12 long years.

Our speakers were obviously led by the Lord. No one had knowledge of what the other was going to say. But as God is all knowing, He placed each perfect issue on their hearts and everything meshed. It was as if they had all coordinated and chose topics that would match. Isn't He AMAZING? I am so guilty of forgetting that.

I am often lazy. I make excuses to not attend functions like this and talk myself out of them. I'm too tired, I need my rest, I feel alone in a crowd.... But I convinced myself to attend ALL of this retreat. It was so worth it. I didn't feel alone, I was able to deal with the fatigue, I opened myself up to listen to what God had to say, I was able to sing His praises with a free heart, and was blessed and instructed. I didn't make an idol of my personal time and was rewarded by God's blessings.