3. Invitation…
Because of your unfailing love, I can enter your house; I will worship at your temple with deepest awe.
Psalm 5:7
In a world, crazy over security, there are more and more places I can’t go because I don’t have the right paperwork, security pass, permissions, tickets etc. On a work trip to Sydney the building that our meetings were held in required me to get a swipe pass to enter through to the lifts. On arriving on the correct floor (in a pre-programmed lift – so no chance of getting out on the wrong one) I had to enter my details into a computer sign-in system and have an electronic photo taken so they could print me a photo-id sticker to wear whilst I was in the meeting rooms.
I had to be finger-printed before entering the USA… I have a friend who was not welcomed into her son’s home for over a year… My husband and son were not permitted to enter an Italian church because they were wearing shorts. The list goes on of places we can be excluded from for one reason or another.
Yet there is always an open door to me and to you into God’s House (not necessarily his church unfortunately due to the Pharisaic rules and regulation created and imposed by man). We can enter because of his great love for us.
David knew nothing of what Jesus would do centuries later when he wrote these words. He didn’t know of God’s work of reconciliation through the cross. Yet he was confident of God’s love and knew that because of that love he was welcome in God’s House. And his response? To bow down in reverence to this great God of love and worship him. This, then, is our motivation for worship, for coming together regularly and bending our knees before him. The unfailing, unending, glorious love of our God.
For this is how God loved the world: he gave his one and only son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16
Frequently God calls on us to come to him both in the Old and New Testaments:
Is anyone thirsty? Come and drink – even if you have no money! Come take your choice of wine or milk – it’s all free…. Come to me with your ears wide open. Listen, and you will find life.
Isaiah 55:1-3
Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, “Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.
John 7:37-39
When you and I came to God and chose him as our Saviour and Lord we began a life long journey of faith. Each day we can renew our faith, replenish our souls, by coming into his presence wherever we are because of his unfailing love.
Prayer: Lord, in the words of the Psalmist, “As the deer pants for the streams of water, so my soul pants for you. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God” (Psalm 42:1-2). In this quiet moment, Lord, I bend my knee in humility and reverence to you because of your great love for me. Lord, I come to you for my heart and soul to be renewed, re-calibrated, because I am loved.
Amen
Action: Today set some reminders in your phone or diary, stick them on the fridge, to step aside for a few moments and come to him, bow down in reverence to him and allow him to wrap you in his love.
Journal your thoughts:
