Isaiah 43:21, Mark 12:30

Well, to live a life of worship before God needs us to have a thankful heart and a thankful attitiude.

Thanksgiving is like a gateway into the presence of God and as we give Him thanks and praise He amazingly responds, because He wants relationship, by coming to be with (dwelling) with us.

In Ephesians 5:19-20 the Apostle Paul calls us to "make melody in our hearts to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things." When we are thankful, change happens; attitudes change, situations change, we change. An example of this is found in the book of Jonah 2:7-10, Jonah chose to worship God, even in the belly of the whale and God's response was his rescue!

If we want to be authentic worshippers of God, we are called to be a holy people, those who don't go by the worlds standards but are distinctive because of our desire for God. A desire to pe pure in the way we speak, think and act. Matthew 5:8 says - "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God."

God is a holy God and without holiness He says that none of us will see Him. We are to be 'holy for He is holy'. We are to be the ones who surrender to God's Spirit and as we do He promises to change us from from glory to glory. But we have to make the choice. In Joshua 24:15 it says this "Choose this day who you will serve".

When we allow Jesus to be revealed in our lives. When we overflow with a passion for Him, there develops in us a fresh hunger for purity and right living and yet we still have the choice to lay down, daily, those things in our individual lives that overtake our worship of Him. We can deny the lifestyle He has called us to and demonstrated in Jesus when He walked our planet.

Again, the Apostle Paul said to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 6:12 - "You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections." Let us set our affections on things above. Constantly presenting ourselves as living sacrifices.

You and I know that we are great at messing up and getting it wrong. God of course knows this too and is looking for us to consistently come back to Him with hearts that are looking for His cleansing and forgiveness and when we do this we can be sure in His promise that, by His grace, we come back into His presence.

One of the reasons why God said that David was a man after His heart was because he would always come to God in repentance when he made mistakes. He knew that He should and that he could. God always makes a way for us. He is the one who wants us back into a great relationship. Remember, He created you and longs to be with you.

This leads me to the question, do we have a passion for His presence?

All we ever need is found in God. Our life, our health, our peace, our prosperity, our hope, our joy. He has created us with the knowledge of this deep within us. So, we must realise that there is a longing within us that cannot be satisfied by anything else, but our intimate relationship with Him. He draws us to a desire for His presence in our lives that nothing else can replace. No-one or nothing else can fulfil the cry of our hearts.

God is looking for a people who are awake to their affections and passions for Jesus and stirred to respond.. just like Mary in John 12:1-8, the true worshipper is prepared to give extravagantly to God, holding nothing back. God requires our all and when we give it, the rewards are beyond compare.

The question is - "Can I ever pour too much cost, time and effort into achieving greater levels of worshipping God?" When we consider Jesus' sacrifice and love for us we become aware that we could never give too much back to God.

Whilst we don't worship God for what we get out of the relationship and our intent should never be to try and 'get on His right side' God generously pours out his benefits as we walk together with Him.

Here are just a few closing sentences highlighting God's benfits to us as we worship Him: