Worship the Lord in the Splendor of His Holiness

 

“So anyone who eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. That is why you should examine yourselves before eating the bread and drinking the cup. For if you eat the bread or drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking God’s judgement upon yourself. That is why many of you are weak and sick and some have died. But if we would examine ourselves, we would not be judged by God in this way. Yet when we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned along with the world.” (1 Corinthians 11:27-32)

In these specific verses, Paul was telling the body of Christ to do this before eating the bread and drinking the cups so they did not reap judgement upon themselves in doing so. A significant aspect of the Corinthian Church reaping judgement, growing weak and even dying as a result was that they lacked the fear of the Lord and were taking communion like it was an entitlement. Their hearts were getting hard as they were going through the motions.

It is so easy to live out our faith without intention and thought as our hearts wane cold. If we lack a fear of the Lord in our lives, it is probably from a lack of taking time to repent and talk to Him about our sin. We need to examine ourselves and repent of sin regularly. We want to make it part of our regular practices.

Psalm 51:16-17 says, “You do not desire sacrifice, or I would offer one. You do not want a burnt offering. The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.”

The Lord loves us unconditionally. This means that He does not push us away in our sin and we do not need to hide from Him out of fear of wrath or punishment. It is His kindness that leads us to repentance. We are pulled close in His love as it frees us from guilt, shame, feelings of condemnation or hard-heartedness. Repenting breaks up the hardness of our heart and brings rains of refreshing (Hosea 10:12).

Psalm 73:23-28 says, Nevertheless, in my sin, misunderstandings, and even sour attitudes, You invite me to continually abide with You; You hold my right hand. You will guide me into wisdom with Your advice; and after my time on earth, you will receive me with honor.

Jeremiah 5:3 says, “Lord, you are searching for honesty. You struck your people, but they paid no attention. You crushed them, but they refused correction. They are determined, with faces set like stone; they have refused to repent.”

The Lord is searching us, not for getting it right, but being repentant because we are honest with ourselves that we cannot get it right. He is searching for a contrite and repentant heart that is broken by our sin. Our part of the covenant is to keep entering into it by staying humble, broken, and repentant in front of Him.

I was reading a book called “How to Experience Revival” by Charles Finney. He starts right from the beginning in talking about confession, as well as sacrifice and determination as being key in bringing revival. He notes that, “A revival is near when Christians begin to confess their sins to one another. Usually they confess in a general, halfhearted manner. They may do it in eloquent language, but it means nothing. But when there is an honest breaking down and a pouring out of the heart of confession of sin, the floodgates will soon burst open, and salvation will flow everywhere.”[1]

In breaking up our fallow ground, we need to examine ourselves. Examining ourselves in the presence of the Lord involves letting Him point out any sin. It also involves reviewing our day and noticing where we sin out of a lack of love, neglect, living by the world’s standards, lack of self-denial, ingratitude and even limiting ourselves by our beliefs or lack of faith in God.

It is often easy to see where we have gone of course by being unkind to someone, not forgiving our spouse, and even been envious of a brother or sister in Christ. However, some of the ones that are harder to notice are things like having a critical spirit or grumbling and complaining. When one is inside of this, they can miss that they are doing it. Paul tells the believers in the Corinthians church, "And don't grumble as some of them did."

What makes us grumble or complain? Do we catch ourselves thinking that something is difficult rather than expecting goodness to follow? Practicing gratitude helps with complaining and grumbling. When we feast on the goodness of God in the moment and in the past, it energizes us and helps us to overcome difficult patches. Expectation of goodness meeting us and others with hope fills us with overflowing joy! When we complain, we drain ourselves and leave ourselves with nothing to overcome the difficulty we face.

My husband frequently complains to me about a little boy who asks to spend lots of time at our house who has some autistic tendencies. And like any little boy, he doesn't always make the wisest decisions. It rubs on my husband and he feels drained when he is with this boy as he is often having to set boundaries and correct him. But my husband does such a beautiful job at it too!

The boy asks to sleep over almost every weekend and my husband shakes his head and often says to me in private, "not again, please." Just recently, this boy lied about being hurt at our house and I spoke to his mother as I was concerned about it. She told me about some of his underlying mental health issues, lying, anger, saying things about suicide at home and her trying to get him help. It opened my eyes to see how much him having overnight, he was learning new ways and it was also giving his family a break. In looking at the difference we are making in helping him (since he seems much more open to learn new ways at our home), rather than be annoyed, we can find joy in the struggles.

We want to have a grateful and joy filled spirit rather than a critical or resentful one. In Psalm 52:1-4 speaks of the actions of someone who is unrighteous. They boast of their crimes, plot destruction all day long, and their tongue cuts like a sharp razor as they cunningly craft lies. They embrace evil and destroy others with their words. The opposite spirit is of the righteous. They boast in the goodness of the Lord and plan to do good to others all day long. Their tongue speaks healing and they craft the truth in a way to release others in freedom. They embrace the goodness of God whole heartedly and use care to build up others with their words.

When we are boasting all day long in the goodness of the Lord and our tongue is speaking healing, we do not have room to be critical of others. So, when are we critical? For me, if someone lacks integrity, it is harder to be non-critical of them. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:24, to not be concerned with my own good [in this case, my self-protection], but for the good of others. Am I looking at what is best for them and how best to help him gain more freedom?

Coming back to the verse I started with in 1 Corinthians 11:31-32, we are to examine ourselves and not judge the world. As I learned when I was young and in treatment and AA, we are to take our own inventory and not others. It is for God to judge and deal with others and not our job. When we release it to him, we not only gain freedom for ourselves but for God to work in their lives and help them gain freedom.

Judgement, criticalness and self-sufficiency are rooted in pride and are often outside of our prevue. This is why pride comes before a fall. Paul says to the Corinthians, "If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall." It is in these places of standing in confidence upon ourselves rather than dependence upon God, and where we think we are strong, that we may just take a tumble. In the same way, like David’s brothers who judged him for wanting to know the reward for taking down Goliath, we can judge something as pride and it is really confidence in God.

Confidence in God rather than ourselves leads us to peace and a place of dependence upon Him, walking with Him in close communion. This is my deepest longing, to continually walk in this place of close communion. Psalm 27:7-8 (NLT) David first asks for God to be merciful and hear him pray by answering him and then he says, "My heart has heard you say, 'Come and talk with me." and my heart responds, 'Lord, I am coming."

God knows how to humble us. For me, it is when I don't hear His voice. Or, when I am worshipping and cannot genuinely enter into His presence in a way that I encounter Him. I feel such a lack and loss. I lose all my sense of joy and feel such a deep sense of disappointment. First it makes me a little hangry. But then it starts me searching myself for all the things that got me out of a place of being with Him. I desperately start making changes until I connect with Him again.

The Lord speaks in Zechariah 1:3, "Return to me and I will return to you." As we repent and turn where we have gone astray, we will know we are on track again when we find Him in our seeking. Like in Zechariah 3:3, He not only takes away our sins, but gives us "these fine new clothes." He gives us this bountiful and generous portion. He works in our hearts this newness of life including changing our heart desires.

When we see our need for Him and we long for Him to hold us close and speak to us, we pull on a measure of His Spirit for this. David was continually asking God to lead him along the right path and to not fall into the hands of his enemies. Because of this waiting upon the Lord to hear from him and making it a priority in his life, he could say, "I am confident I will see the Lord's goodness while I ham here in the land of the living. Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord." (Psalm 27:13-14, NLT)

In Mark 6:50, after being afraid and thinking they saw a ghost, Jesus tells them “Take Courage!” Courage is evidence of confidence in God. How often do we take hold of it? How much easier it is to disqualify ourselves, feeling insecure and uncomfortable, and pass on something God has for us? This is sin. When we give up, get discouraged, quit, or just fail to launch, we are acting in sin. When we fail to operate in the gifts that He has given us, we are not being noble or humble, we are sinning. We need to take time to repent of this.

Psalm 104:34 says, “May all my thoughts be pleasing to Him, for I rejoice in the Lord.” Part of having pleasing thoughts is to not doubt His goodness. It is letting go of critical thoughts of ourselves. It is a willingness to stop being insecure as we trust and rest in the resources of God. We need to let him chisel away insecurity just as we do things like anger and impatience.

I went around for some time with the titles of books that God told me to write. However, what held me back was that I couldn’t believe that I was a writer. How often we disqualify ourselves by our own beliefs. We stay out of what God has for us because of our insecurity or feelings of inadequacy. This does not glorify God. What glorifies God is when we walk in faith. Paul says, “For we live by believing and not by seeing.”

It is easier for me to see my need to repent of being unkind, angry and impatient. I notice these and deeply know that I am in the wrong when I partake of them as I have wronged someone else. Sometimes, it is harder to see missing the mark by lack of doing, small compromises, stagnation, insecurity, fear of rejection, feelings of inferiority or feelings of insignificance. When we wrong only ourselves, we disregard it. But these are hinderances that keep us from living into our potential.

Living beneath our potential does not glorify God. Living with an inferiority complex is not humble, it is failing to give God our all. We become stagnant as we allow fear of failing or rejection (based upon self) to dictate our actions. In the earlier part of my life, this was huge for me. I let people speak into what I could and couldn't do. I let others belief or lack of belief in me dictate my potential. I still do this to an extent and at times.

Little compromises are also something that can steal from us. In the Song of Songs, the lover calls out to their beloved, "catch the little foxes that spoil the vineyards." Do we really think about the impact of small compromises? Little compromises harden our hearts. They spoil the rich relationship that the Lord has for us with Him. A little there, a little here doesn't seem to be much, but then we also don't repent of it because it seems so minor; instead, we live in little compromises everywhere and lack the fullness God has for us.

Probably the greatest compromise is when we fail to tell others about Christ. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:22-23, "Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life. But there is an order to this resurrection: Christ was raised as the first of the harvest; then all who belong to Christ will be raised when He comes back."

While I can wonder about how we have spiritual body when we die and we are "not dead but alive" like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, then how will it look when we are raised to life at the very end and inherit what will last forever with immortal spiritual bodies, there is also this weighty piece of this verse that says, "everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life." This means those who refuse to belong to Christ are given the gift of their current life. They belong to the world and live in it for a period of time, but, without Christ, they cannot enter new life. Eternally, they miss the mark and miss out. This world is our only chance to be the light and help them see the light.

Lord, we want to give you all. We want our lives to be full of vibrant brilliant worship of you. You are an amazing God and deserve no less than our best. Forgive us where we fall short of this. Forgive me for the so many ways that I sin. Often, I do not even see it. This is especially true when I limit myself or doubt your goodness. Rather than look to a situation with hope and expectation, I can sometimes look at it with fear, worry and trepidation. Search us and know our hearts, see if there is any hurtful or harmful way within us and lead us along your good path.

1. Finney, Charles. How to Experience Revival. Whitaker House, New Kensington, PA. 2017.