One day in your courts...

Today's devotion with Nicky and Pippa Gumbel is "How to Worship God" and it begins with reference to a painting, by Filippino Lippi of Mary holding the infant Jesus on her lap, with saints Dominic and Jerome kneeling nearby. In order to be properly viewed, it had to be hung above the viewer, while on their knees, in order to observe it from a proper perspective. The painting was created to be hung in a place of prayer as the painting only came alive to those on their knees in prayer.

Nicky begins quoting Psalm 84:8-12: "Hear my prayer, Lord God Almighty; listen to me, God of Jacob..." The Psalm goes on to say, "Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. For the Lord God is a sun and shield; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. Lord Almighty, blessed is the one who trusts in you."

Commenting about the Psalm, Nicky said "To worship God is to experience him as 'sunshine', bathing us in his light and warmth and a 'shield', defending us from evil (v.11)."

Temple Structure

Nicky said 'There is nothing in this world that compares to worshiping God in his dwelling place, which was the Jerusalem temple, in the Psalm. (structure shown here may be similar ).
This Psalm was probably written 600 BCE or earlier (some 2600+ plus years ago).

So much has changed since then. There is so much sinfulness and unrest in the world today, we must seek our quiet times anywhere we can get away alone. For me, I have a place I refer to as "my quiet spot", at the back of our property adjacent to a farmer's field, where you can share space with the deer, the birds, and nature. This truly has been a blessing for me, a Garden of Eden of sorts.

My Quiet Spot...

Later in closing their devotion, Pippa refers to verse 11, 'No good thing does [the Lord] withhold from those whose walk is blameless.' Then she said: "... I sometimes wish that it said 'for those who are not doing too badly' because 'blameless' seems rather a high standard. That's why we need the cross, because we can't do it on our own.' I totally agree with Pippa! Let's face it... who among us is blameless? ... NOT!

Each of us is a part of God's creation and can worship Him and pray in a church setting as a group, and ongoing anywhere we are, preferably in a quiet spot, where God is waiting to draw close.

Nicky went on to share Romans 1:18-32, which talks about God's wrath against sinful humanity, dealing with the godlessness and wickedness of people. These powerful verses in Romans are such an eye-opener for all of us today with all of the sinful desires, sexual impurity, shameful lusts, women exchanging natural sexual relations for unnatural relations with women, and men abandoning natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another...you name it!

So here's the deal...none of us is blameless, we all need God, more-so today, than ever before. God is ready and waiting for every one of us to seek His love, His forgiveness, and His leading in our lives!

I'd like to close today by sharing Nicky's prayer, which we could all pray:

Lord, I cry out to you for restoration and revival. Would you restore your church in this country. Revive us again. May our nation turn back to you, begin to worship you again, enjoy your presence, and on our knees before you, see things from the right perspective.