God is {WORTHY}

This is part my blogging series "Challenge Filled February"
I'll be blogging every day about who God is
To start from the beginning click HERE

1Praise the Lord!

For it is good to sing praises to our God;

for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting.

2The Lord builds up Jerusalem;

he gathers the outcasts of Israel.

3He heals the brokenhearted

and binds up their wounds.

4He determines the number of the stars;

he gives to all of them their names.

5Great is our Lord, and abundant in power;

his understanding is beyond measure.

Psalm 147:1-5

What a beautiful psalm.

Take a moment with me to reflect on these words.

Start off by focusing on the words that I've highlighted in blue:

These are all the things that God DOES!

Guess what friends: God is a DOER! He is not sitting back idle.

He is building,

gathering,

healing & binding,

determining the stars and naming them

If he gives that much attention to a ball of gas, how much more does he care for you?

He is WORTHY to be praised, is he not?

Now take a look at the words highlighted in purple:

we are to sing a song of praise,

it is fitting!

What attributes are you
singing to God this afternoon?

God is {INCOMPARABLE}

This is part my blogging series "Challenge Filled February"
I'll be blogging every day about who God is
To start from the beginning click HERE

25To whom then will you compare me,

that I should be like him? says the Holy One.

26Lift up your eyes on high and see:

who created these?

He who brings out their host by number,

calling them all by name,

by the greatness of his might,

and because he is strong in power

not one is missing.

27Why do you say, O Jacob,

and speak, O Israel,

"My way is hidden from the Lord,

and my right is disregarded by my God"?

28Have you not known? Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God,

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He does not faint or grow weary;

his understanding is unsearchable.

29He gives power to the faint,

and to him who has no might he increases strength.

30Even youths shall faint and be weary,

and young men shall fall exhausted;

31but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;

they shall mount up with wings like eagles;

they shall run and not be weary;

they shall walk and not faint.

Isaiah 40:25-31

These verses speak for themselves.

Take a moment and reflect on them.

Our God is INCOMPARABLE my friends.

Never. 

Forget. 

That.

God is {WORTH SACRIFICING FOR}

This is part my blogging series "Challenge Filled February"
I'll be blogging every day about who God is
To start from the beginning click HERE

10 Behold, the Lord God comes with might,
and his arm rules for him;
behold, his reward is with him,
and his recompense before him.
11 He will tend his flock like a shepherd;
he will gather the lambs in his arms;
he will carry them in his bosom,
and gently lead those that are with young.
12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand
and marked off the heavens with a span,
enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure
and weighed the mountains in scales
and the hills in a balance?
13 Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord,
or what man shows him his counsel?
14 Whom did he consult,
and who made him understand?
Who taught him the path of justice,
and taught him knowledge,
and showed him the way of understanding?
15 Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,
and are accounted as the dust on the scales;
behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust.

21 Do you not know? Do you not hear?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
23 who brings princes to nothing,
and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.
24 Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,
scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,
when he blows on them, and they wither,
and the tempest carries them off like stubble.

Psalm 40:10-15; 21-24

So I knew at some point, that I'd miss a day in the challenge - 

but even when you fail, it's important to pick yourself back up and move on.

Today's title is a bit different than I've been writing on this month.
It describes God, but takes into account what are reaction to God should be.
This morning our sermon was the first of a Lenten season series titled

Embracing Sacrifice

Our speaker encouraged us to not just think about Lent by asking "What do I want to give up?"
but instead first asking ourselves

"What aspect of Christian Life would I like to grow in?

Then based off this answer - ask yourself

"What might I need to give up to help me accomplish this?"

These questions are not easy to ask ourselves - because instead of thinking, oh, I'm gonna give up sugar for God and get the satisfaction of losing weight at the end of 40 days, it requires us to really take stock of what in our life is separating us from our heavenly Father.

Reading this weekends' scripture in the God study makes me think one thing:

GOD IS WORTH SACRIFICING FOR!

The God who comes in might,
who is as gentle as a shepherd,
who marks off the heavens and weighs the mountains
who stretches out the earth and blows away the rulers of this world like chaff

This is the God that I want to be closer to.

This is the God that I'm willing to give up all for

and I'm starting with my own guilt - because God has become my atoning sacrifice

and I'm gonna start trying to live like it.

What are you giving up to get closer to God over the next seven weeks?