Five simple tips to worship God with your heart, soul and mind

Do you worship God because you love him? Do you worship God fully focused or are you always distracted?

And Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37)

 

The greatest thing in your love for God is that you worship him. Don’t worship the Lord God the sake of it but do with full involvement of your heart, soul and mind. Here are a few tips to worship God with your heart, soul and mind:

 

1) Have faith in God

Trying to worship God without believing in Him is completely illogical. And this won’t please God even one bit.

• But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works. (Psalm 73:28)
• And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)

 

2) Repent of all your sins to let your prayers be heard

God is holy and does not desire his worshippers to cling to sin. Repent and ask God for his forgiveness and be determined to do His will.

• We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. (John 9:31)
  
• Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. (James 4:8)
  

3) Forgive everyone because its God’s will

Don’t cling to unforgiveness so that you live as per the will of God. Make it point to fully forgive each and everyone who sinned against you. Also, forgive yourself.

• And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”(Mark 11:25)
• Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. (Colossians 3:12-13)

4) Always love the Lord God

Without love towards God, your worship of God is in vain. Love God in all sincerity when you pray to Him.

• If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:2)
  
• Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. (1 Corinthians 13:8)

 

5) Focus on the Lord God

Meditate on the goodness of the Lord. By focusing on the Word of God and speaking it in heart and mind you will be more attuned to the things of the Lord by the Holy Spirit. Even if distractions come, rebuke and reject them in the name of Jesus and continue to worship God.

• I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. (Psalm 119:15)
• But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. (Galatians 5:16-17)

 

 

The True Christian Hates Sin!

Do not hesitate to rebuke a sinner!

We are to rebuke a sinner so that he or she turns to the Lord Jesus in the way of righteousness. Now a rebuke does not have to be a loud rant. One can be calm but et bold in rebuking a sinner so that he or she sins no more. You should never be so scared to rebuke someone that you altogether don’t rebuke at all. Now all those who hear rebuke may not every time repent. However that shouldn’t worry you because it will serve as a warning to others. Also pray for the one who you are rebuking so that they receive it with true understanding.

• A rebuke goes deeper into one who has understanding than a hundred blows into a fool. (Proverbs 17:10)
• If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. (Matthew 18:15)
• Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. (Luke 17:3)
• Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted. (Galatians 6:1)
• Those who continue in sin, rebuke in the presence of all, so that the rest also will be fearful of sinning. (1 Timothy 5:20)
• All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16)
• My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. (James 5:19-20)

There is no repentance in the grave

 

There is no repentance in the grave: there is no conversion after the last breath is drawn. Now is the time to believe in Christ, and to lay hold of eternal life. Now is the time to turn from darkness to light, and to make our calling and election sure. The night comes when no man can work. As the tree falls, there it will lie. If we leave this world refusing to repent and believe, we will rise in the same condition on resurrection morning, and find it would have been “better for us if we had never been born.” – J.C. Ryle

 

Quick Reminder : Preach the Gospel and remain holy too

 

• Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” (John 6:28-29)
• You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? As it is written: “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” (Romans 2: 23-24)
• But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified (1 Corinthians 9:27)
• Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!  I hope you will find out that we have not failed the test.  But we pray to God that you may not do wrong—not that we may appear to have met the test, but that you may do what is right, though we may seem to have failed. (2 Corinthians 13:5-7)
• Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. (Revelation 2:5)

Debunking the sin consciousness trick used by false preachers

We live in times where apostasy is ever on the rise. There have always been heretics who have misled others into wrong doing by promoting falsehood against the Lord God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Any man, woman or child who professes faith in the Lord Jesus Christ must be on guard against the attacks on his or her faith, be it from the world or within the church. This nothing new under the sun and has happened since many years. It’s just that the terms and topics of heresies change, but they have one thing in common, they deny the Lord by denying the truth of his Holy Word.

• ³ Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. ⁴ For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.  (Jude 1:3-4)
• But there were also lying Prophets among the people, as there shall be lying teachers also among you, those who bring destructive heresies and deny the Lord who bought them, while bringing upon themselves speedy destruction. (2 Peter 2:1)

 

What is sin consciousness?

There are preachers who say ‘Why do we bother telling people to “stop sinning!” or “be holy!”? When obviously nobody can stop sin or even be holy? Can you?’ They then go on give out verses which prove that Christ died for our sins and he fulfilled the law for us and also how people can end up sinning again and again. Obviously, we are forgiven by the death and resurrection of Jesus. It true that people do sin repeatedly. However what they conveniently skip is the fact we cannot continue to live in sin and must repent of it, every time.

By sin consciousness they go on to say that you are focusing more on your sin instead of being ‘Christ conscious’. What they actually mean is that you are too focused on your sinful nature and repenting from your sins instead of focusing on Jesus Christ. Their main contention is that Christ died for all of your sins be past, present or future so you don’t need to bother about sinning. Basically, even if you sin you won’t miss out on heaven. This is far from the truth in fact.

It is a false doctrine to tell Christians that after their first repentance, they never need to repent again for new sins. The blood of Jesus does not automatically wash away FUTURE sins, sins need to be repented of after they are committed. If you disagree, just ask Ananias and Sephira about their pre-forgiven sin. This is why repentance in mentioned in the Lord’s Prayer.

 

Christ consciousness or obedience to God?

Also the bit which they mention about being ‘Christ conscious’ is hardly a Biblical term. And is in fact used in other religions (refer to this link). That itself should be red flag unto a true believer in Christ.

And any thing about being conscious about Christ must be in keeping with the Word of God or else its just falsehood against the Gospel.

When a Christian wants to meditate on Christ it is not just worshiping the Lord but also obeying him. The following verses confirm that we are to obey Christ Jesus who is the Word God.

• For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ (2 Corinthians 10:4-5)
• [Jesus said,] you are my friends, if you do whatsoever I command you. (John 15:14)
  
• Be doers of the word, and not hearers only. Otherwise, you are deceiving yourselves. (James 1:22)

 

Teaching disobedience by not repenting is a heretical denial of the commands of Jesus Christ

When Jesus himself commands all people to repent of their sin, then those you who call themselves as believers in Christ too much preach repentance and nothing less.  Here are some verses to reflect on:

• From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. (Matthew 4:17)
• Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. (Revelation 2:5)
• ¹⁸ And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)

 

 

No who teaches false doctrine must be accepted by those who believe in Christ

It goes beyond question that those who truly love the Lord Jesus Christ must obey him and believe in Him and adhere to the teachings of the Gospel. Anything away from this is false doctrine which a believer must reject and flee away from.

• ⁶ I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— ⁷ not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. ⁸ But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. ⁹ As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:6-9)
• ⁴⁶ “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? ⁴⁷ Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: ⁴⁸ he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. ⁴⁹ But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.” (Luke 6:46-49)
  
• If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. (1 Corinthians 16:22)

 

 

Choose repentance anytime and every time instead of getting tricked by the sin consciousness trick

I’ve mentioned this earlier in one of my previous posts but let me say it again; Why does the Lord throughout the Bible keep warning of severe judgement if some were to receive the mark of the Beast? There are verses that say that those who receive it, will never be forgiven (please refer to Revelation 14:9-11). If the Lord knows that some people are going to sin why does he not use the ‘auto forgiven for the future’ stance? Because simply, such a thing does not exist and is wholly inconsistent with the Gospel. You need to repent if you sin. Period.

 

Tougher than the Holy life

Compared to the Holy life the sinful life is tougher,
For the wages of sin in eternal life is rougher.
In the Holy life you’re rejected by worldly beings,
While in the sinful life you’re rejected by heavenly beings.

Sin may seem to have pleasure in its initial payoff,
But from eternal joy it’s simply much way off.
Now holiness makes less friends,
While sinfulness begets hopeless ends.

Some think of sin as useful tool,
Only to be caught up like a fool.
Beware that anger, hate and regret,
In Hell does the sinner get.

Jesus was with sinners so that he could bring them to God

Backsliding always begins in the heart

Do not be surprised!