A sermon preached by Pastor Jim Scott Orrick

Acts 2:42 leading to Matthew 4:8-10

My text states that the church in Jerusalem continued steadfastly in prayer. The Greek text literally reads the prayers. If you have a New American Standard version of the Bible, then you will see that they footnote that phrase and inform the reader that, literally, instead of saying "they continued in prayer," it says "they continued in the prayers." That is significant because I think that this fourth characteristic is not merely praying but rather public worship, in which praying plays a prominent part. So they continued steadfastly in "the prayers."

Amelia Bedelia is a lovable character in a series of books for little children. The plot of each Amelia Bedelia is essentially the same. Amelia, who is a household maid, goes to work in someone's house and is given a list of tasks to accomplish. The task list utilizes figurative language, but Amelia takes the figurative language literally. For example, when the list tells Amelia to dust the furniture, she sprinkles dusting powder on the furniture. When the list says to draw the drapes, she draws a picture of the drapes. When she is told to put out the lights, she takes the light bulbs out of the lamp and hangs them on the clothesline. And when she is told to dress a chicken, well you can guess what she does. In order for little children to think that Amelia's behavior is amusing, they must be able to distinguish figurative language from literal language; and it amazes me that they are able to make this distinction long before they are capable of reading. If they are incapable of making this distinction between figurative language and literal language, they will not understand any of the Amelia Bedelia books. They will not get any of the jokes. Similarly, the Bible writers commonly utilize figurative language. Often Bible interpreters make ridiculous mistakes when they, like Amelia Bedelia, mistake figurative language for literal language. For example, Jesus tells Nicodemas, “Unless a man is born of water and the spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.” In the Bible, water is a fairly common figure of speech for the word of God. But some interpreters have mistakenly thought that when Jesus speaks of water, He is referring to baptism. And so, they have made Jesus say that baptism is essential to being born again. But but this misinterpretation results from mistaking figurative language for literal language.

In the text that I have just read in Acts 2:42, the Lord's Supper is simply called "the breaking of bread." Here, one part of the Lord's Supper, the breaking of bread, is used to refer to the entire supper, which at least includes the taking of the cup as well. Again, in Acts 2:42, one part of public worship, "praying," is used to refer to the entire worship service. These instances of figurative language here in Acts 2:42 are examples of what is called synecdoche. A synecdoche is a figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole. For example, if a captain of a ship blows his whistle and says, "All hands on deck," he does not really expect everyone to put just his hands down on the deck right then. "Hands" is a synecdoche for the men who are attached to the hands. It is a synecdoche for sailors, so when the captain says, "All hands on deck," he means, "All of you sailors get up here on deck." Or, when someone asks a farmer, "How many head of cattle do you have?" He is really not wanting to know how many heads he has, he is wanting to know how many total cows he has. Head, only part of a cow, is a synecdoche for the entire cow. Or, it can work the other way around. A synecdoche can substitute the whole for a part. For example, some one who gets a ticket says, "I was stopped by the law." The law is a synecdoche of the whole referring actually to a police officer. Now these are very common. We say that George W. Bush is in the White House. And by that we mean that he has been elected as president. White House has become a synecdoche for the executive office of the government or the presidency.

Here, in Acts 2:42, one prominent feature of their public worship, namely, "the prayers" is used to denote the entire worship service. A similar instance of prayer is found in Acts 6:4. When the Apostles say that they will let these other men take care of serving tables, "but we will give ourselves continually to the prayer and to the ministry of the word," I think they were saying, "It doesn't mean that we are just going to always be doing nothing but praying, but that our primary responsibility is preparing for and taking care of the public worship of the church, and taking care of these other needs is distracting us from that."

So, believing that "the prayers" in Acts 2:42 is a figure of speech referring to pubic worship leads me to conclude that one of the four essentials of a New Testament church is ongoing public worship. In order for a group of Christians to be a church, they must meet together regularly, and the prominent feature of their meeting will be worship. Worship must be a priority. There is good reason for prayer to be used as the synecdoche representing worship because the spirit of prayer must permeate all our worship. Worship ceases to be worship when it ceases to be prayer-like. Worship is directed to God, and, of course, prayer is directed to God. When we start ordering worship so as to please human beings, then it stops being worship. Certainly, human beings will get a great deal of pleasure out of worship, and we should come with the prayer, "Lord, make your worship pleasurable." But if worship is directed towards pleasing individuals, it ceases to be prayer-like, and it ceases to be worship. You know that one minute in God's presence is far more enjoyable than ten hours of the best entertainment. It is not as though we are trading pleasure for worship when we insist that worship must be God-centered. When we trade man-centered worship for God-centered worship, we are trading the pleasure of entertainment for the ecstasy of God’s presence.

My second text is in Matthew, chapter four. I am choosing a second text because even though Acts 2:42 tells us that worship is one of the essentials of a New Testament Church, it doesn't tell us much about worship. Therefore, I am choosing this second text that will give us information about the nature of worship. So, from this text I will seek to answer, "What is worship?" And then I will spend the remainder of the sermon this morning applying the message that worship is to be both private and public, and for a number of reasons we should make worship a priority.

In Matthew chapter 4, the Lord Jesus Christ is being tempted by the devil, and He successfully resists the temptation that the devil offers. This event is one of the most important in the life of Christ. God, for whatever His reasons, has chosen to deal with the human race through representative heads. There have been only two, and there will be only two that represent the human race. There is the first Adam who was the man created and put in the Garden of Eden, and then there is the last Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ. God chose to deal with the human race with the first Adam, apparently something along these lines: He said to Adam, "If you obey me, you will be confirmed in the state of righteousness;" (we infer that because God said, "If you disobey Me, you will die." We are just inferring the positive from the negative). "Adam, you will die if you disobey, you will live if you obey Me." The Bible teaches that this agreement that God made with Adam was not only for Adam, but for all of His posterity, everyone who would descend from him by ordinary generation. When Adam sinned, the entire human race, not yet born, but the entire human race was consigned to a state of sin. Now this does not simply mean the imputation, crediting, of guilt. It means this that God said, "Adam, you sinned; everyone is going to be accounted a sinner." But when God consigned the entire human race to sin, it was not simply accounting them sinners, but along with the guilt of Adam's first sin came the corruption of his nature. Adam became a person who wanted to sin. That is a corruption of human nature. Sometimes people will defend their sinful nature by saying “I am only human.” But actually that is not a good defense for sinfulness. Sinfulness is not an essential component of humanity per se. So, really, it is not a defense to say "I'm only human" when we do a sinful behavior. Adam then became a sinner because he became corrupt. He loved sin. He did not love God anymore. And since Adam was the representative head of the human race, the entire race became sinful sinners. The bottom line of this is that when I was born, I was not born innocent. I was born with a predisposition to sin, for my nature was corrupt.

When someone is born again, that corruption in his nature is quelled. It is not totally extirpated or obliterated or done away with, but it is quelled, and a new principal is introduced that that incites us to love and worship God. It could very appropriately be said in answer to the question "What must I do to be saved?" "Worship God and you will be saved;" because in worshiping God, there is of necessity a turning away from what God is displeased with, sin and corruption, and admiring what God is pleased with, chiefly Himself.

God has seen fit to deal with the human race through representative heads. The first Adam disobeyed, and all mankind descending from him by ordinary generation sinned in him and fell with him in his first transgression. But Adam is not the only representative head of the human race. In the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son to be the last Adam and also to be a representative for, not the entire human race, but for the people whom the Father had given to Him. We find Jesus praying in John 17, "I am not praying for the whole world, I am praying for those you have given to me." Jesus says in John 6 "All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes I will never drive away. " We find Jesus talking about those whom the Father has given to Him. Sometimes He calls them "My sheep." Sometimes they are called "My people." But just as in the first Adam, everyone who was included in him shared in the curse of his disobedience, so with the last Adam, Jesus Christ, everyone who is included in Him shares in the blessings of His obedience. Just as through the disobedience many were made sinners, so also, through the obedience of one man many will be made righteous. In order to be included with the first Adam, all that is necessary is that you be a human being. There is no way you can escape your lineage and ensuing corruption from Adam if you are a human being. But those who were included in the second Adam, from God's perspective, are the elect. From our perspective, they are those who believe in Jesus Christ. So if you want to be included in Jesus Christ and receive the benefits of what He did for His people, then you must repent of sin and believe on Jesus Christ. Put another way, you must turn away from corruption and what is displeasing to God, and you must turn to Jesus Christ and worship Him. Someone might ask, “Is there no way for me to be right with God apart from worshiping Jesus Christ?” Not according to Jesus Christ. According to Jesus, “He who does not honor the Son, does not honor the Father who sent Him.” Of course, honor is one of the primary components of worship. So that we could with just a little bit of license translate Jesus' words to say that he who does not worship the Son does not worship the Father who sent him. So by faith we are united to Jesus Christ, and then we receive the benefits that flow from His obedience on behalf of His people.

Christ's resisting the temptations of the devil recorded here in Matthew 4 is very crucial. Remember our first representative head, Adam, succumbed to the temptation of the devil. He gave in; he failed. In order then for Jesus to be made perfect as our Savior, to be made the captain of our salvation, He had to withstand the temptation of the devil. Having withstood Him at the beginning of His ministry, Jesus continued to withstand the devil. This was not the only time that the devil tempted Jesus. At the end of this narrative, not here in Matthew, but in Mark or in Luke, the record says that the devil left until a more convenient time, or for a while. The devil would come back and assail Jesus again, but every time that He did, Jesus repulsed him. Jesus always won over the devil, and He never succumbed to sin. That is very significant because God who is Holy demands that if you are going to be in the kingdom of heaven, you have got to have a perfect righteousness. Now you know that you can't give God a perfect righteousness, but Jesus did. Jesus gave God that perfect righteousness. When we are united to Him by faith, what happens? We receive the blessings of Christ's obedience. The Bible teaches that the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us. We didn't live that righteous life, but God treats us as if we did. It is credited to us so that even though you and I have often been defeated by Satan, and perhaps even this very day have been guilty of sins that make us hang our heads in shame, yet when God the Father sees us in Jesus Christ, He sees someone who resisted temptation perfectly.

Not only is a perfect righteousness required of those who are in the kingdom of heaven, but something must be done about the sins that we have committed. The fact that Jesus lived a righteous life does not give God a good excuse to pretend like we never sinned. Do you understand that? Something must be done with our sin. The Bible teaches that when Jesus died on the cross, He was suffering the punishment that was due to sinners. God was pouring out on Jesus Christ His anger and His indignation, His wrath against sin. That wrath of God caused me some sleepless nights before I was in Christ. I thought about dying, going to hell and never getting out. I would always be in unspeakable torment. The wrath of God! It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God. If you and I are to escape that wrath, then someone must bear that wrath for us. That is what the Bible says that Jesus Christ did on the cross. "God made Him who knew no sin to be made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." The Bible says that He bore our sins in His body on the cross. He bore them away so that even though we are sinners, when we have faith in Jesus Christ and receive Him and worship Him as our Savior and Lord, God sees us as a person who is never going to be punished for sin. "There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." If you don't believe in Jesus, you are already condemned and the wrath of God remains on you, but if you believe in Jesus Christ you will not be condemned, but you have everlasting life right now.

It's very important that Jesus withstood temptation. One of the temptations in which he repulsed the devil had to do with worship. Look at it here in Matthew 4:8: Again the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and he said to him, “All these things I will give you if you will fall down and worship me”. Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan, for it is written 'you shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’” Then the devil left Him and behold angels came and ministered to Him. There are several important elements of worship that are contained in these two or three verses.

First of all, worship is a mingling of fear of and adoration for God. Both of these are present in worship, fear and adoration, a trembling sort of joy. First, the fear. The devil says, “Fall down and worship me.” Jesus answered, "It is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.'" Jesus is quoting an Old Testament passage of scripture. Let's turn to it. It's in Deuteronomy 6. Keep you finger in Matthew 4, but turn back to Deuteronomy 6. Keep in mind that Jesus said, "You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only you shall serve." When you find Deuteronomy 6:13, you will find that this is what it says. "You shall fear the Lord your God and serve Him, and shall take oaths in His name." Jesus apparently considers that worshiping God and fearing God are so close to one another that the words may be used interchangeably. Jesus substitutes the word worship for fear. Some people today will say "Well, that simply means that we are to have a healthy respect for God." It means that, but it means more than that. I'm afraid that our "healthy respect" today has become so flippant and so lacking in awe that it hardly communicates the truth of what fear really means. Look further here in Deuteronomy 6. The very next verse, verse 14, gives us some idea of what He means by fear. "You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the people who are all around you, for the Lord your God is a jealous God among you, lest the anger of the Lord your God be aroused against you and destroy you from the face of the earth.” Beyond what most of us conceive by mere healthy respect, fear involves what most of us mean by being scared. That is an important element of true evangelical fear of God. God has tremendous power, and he is fully capable of destroying us from off the face of the earth. He has done it to others; he has cause to do it to us. That is good cause for fear.

Even when we are believers, we should have this kind of healthy fear. Not that God is going to damn us to hell, but God can sure get our attention through some very uncomfortable ways. We don't want Him to get our attention that way. The Lord says to Israel "Don't be like the horse or the mule which will not obey the rider unless they have a bit in their mouth." If you have ever been around horses, then you know that you have to put a piece of metal, the bits, in the horse's mouth, and to that piece, the reins are attached. If you want the horse to go one way, you pull that piece of metal one way, and the horse turns that way because he does not want that metal to hurt his mouth. With the same principal, you can lead around a 2000 pound bull if you put a ring in his nose, because that little piece of skin between the nostrils is awfully sensitive. Snap a ring in there, and then you can take hold of that ring and a little child can lead that bull around because he doesn't want his nose hurt. God says, "I can lead you that way, but that's not my first choice. Don't be like the horse or the mule. Oh, that you would listen to my voice! Listen to what I say!" The Lord says in Romans 2 that His kindness, tolerance, and patience lead us to repentance. But if these gentle graces prove ineffective with us, God has more severe graces that are sure to get our attention and lead us to repentance. He is a God to be feared and fear is an essential part of worship.

The Old Testament word that is most commonly translated "worship" is a word that literally means "to bow down." In the New Testament, the word that is most commonly translated "worship," is a word that literally means "to kiss toward," but when you kiss toward someone in the New Testament sense, it's not blowing them a kiss. It is getting down on your hands and knees and kissing the feet of someone great. In both the Old Testament word and the New Testament word, the idea of bowing down in reverence is inherent. Bowing down is an important part of worship. I'm not just talking about physically bowing down, although I think that physically bowing down is a very useful tool in helping us to humble ourselves before the Lord. Bowing down says "You are greater than I am. I don't deserve to be on the same level as you." The common etiquette in some Oriental countries requires that inferiors bow down to superiors. In Thailand, when you walk into a room, you are always supposed to put your head lower than someone who is important in that room. Students coming into a classroom will bow down in the presence of their teacher and walk in a hunched over position until they reach their seats. Bowing down says, "You are greater than I am." When we bow down before the Lord we are acknowledging, "You are greater than I am. I am entirely at your mercy. I am putting myself in a vulnerable position. Have mercy upon me." You can observe similar behavior even in the animal world. When dogs first meet and have cautiously performed their greeting rituals, you will sometimes observe the weaker dog roll over and expose his belly. It is his most vulnerable part, but he is saying by his bowing down and rolling over, "I acknowledge your superiority. You are able to disembowel me if you wish. I know that you are capable of doing it. I want you to know that I am not going to fight you. I am submitting to you." That's what we say when we worship. We are saying to God "You are so much greater than I. I am not going to fight against you. You can kill me if you want, but I am not going to fight with you." Did you know that someone who bows down before the Lord like that is always accepted by God? He delights to show mercy. And that leads me to the second important element in worship.

Worship is not just fear, it's not just a craven fear. When the little dog falls down on the ground and rolls over and shows his belly to the big dog, he does so because he assumes that the big dog knows that courtesy among dogs demands that he will not open him up and pull his insides out. The little dog assumes that. It is thus when we come to the Lord. He who comes to God must believe that he is and that He is a rewarder of them that seek Him. And so, coupled with the fear is this adoration springing from the confidence that He will receive me. He will accept me. On William Carey's tomb are the words from a hymn of Isaac Watts that says, "A guilty vile and helpless worm on thy kind arm I fall." That's the way that we come to God, bowing down. We feel our unworthiness and our guilt, but we remember that He has kind arms. We come believing the promise of Jesus Christ that, "Him that cometh to me in no wise will I cast out. Whoever comes to me, I will never drive away." Mixed with the fear is this adoration and this expectation of blessing. That's essential in the attitude of worship.

But worship does not remain simply an attitude. Worship expresses that attitude of fear coupled with adoration. Whether or not we actually bow down in the presence of the Lord with our physical, literal bodies, the attitude of bowing down must pervade all of our worship. Our singing must be characterized by this mixture of joy and fear. This is the way the Psalmist puts it in Psalm 2. “Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son lest He be angry.” So we express this to the Lord in our singing, praying, in the way we listen to His word being read and preached, and in the way that we read His word and pray in private. We are bowing down before the Lord. Here from Matthew 4, we learn that worship carries with it the idea of fear, the idea of bowing down.

In the text we read that Jesus further says, "Him only you shall serve." Another important thing to remember in worship is that worship is for God only. We're not to worship other human beings. The book of the Revelations records that John, after having received the great revelation, fell down before the angel, bowed down before him. The angel said, "Do not worship me. Worship God." We are not to worship angels. We are not to worship departed saints. We are not to worship holy people upon earth. We are to worship God only. As I've already said, since we are to worship God only, then our worship services should be directed toward doing what God wants us to do. This much in answer to the question "What is worship?"

Now let me apply this sermon. First of all, if God is a spirit, then He seeks worshipers to worship Him in spirit and in truth as Jesus says in John 4. If God is seeking for worshipers, then we should make worship a priority. Worship is a priority for everyone who has been born again. People who have been made after the image of Jesus Christ cannot keep themselves from worshiping God. For some of us, when we walk around in the world, we no longer see just a beautiful tree or a beautiful lake, but our hearts are always singing, “This is my Father's world, and to my listening ears, all nature sings and round me rings the music of the spheres.” We see Him all around.

Heaven above is softer blue. Earth around is sweeter green.

Something lives in every hue that Christ-less eyes have never seen.

Birds with gladder songs oer'flow. Flowers with brighter colors shine.

Since I know as now I know, I am His and He is mine.

We are constantly breathing up little expressions of worship and praise and gratitude to the Lord. Worship is a priority to those who have been born again, but it all doesn't just happen naturally. We need to constantly make worship a priority in our lives.

If you had asked me several years ago, "What is the most important in the quest to become a mature believer in Jesus Christ?" I almost certainly would have said, "Private devotions." Private devotions are very important, but that is not the answer that the Bible gives. The teaching of the Bible accords the primary place to sincere public worship. Now public worship will not be sincere unless you are also worshiping in private. If the only time you ever read the word of God is when you come to church, then you're probably not going to get very much out of it. If the only time you pray to God is when you come to church, then you are probably not even praying to God when you come to church. Private worship is very important, but for every verse in the Bible that talks about private worship, there must be one hundred about the importance of public worship. The people of God are assumed to be a part of a worshiping community. The modern idea exists that somehow we can get saved by merely listening to the radio or watching the TV, and then for the rest of our lives remain a “Lone Ranger” Christian who never unites with other Christians. That idea is entirely foreign to the New Testament, not just because there were no radio or TV preachers, but because every time someone gets saved in the New Testament you will find them joining themselves to the other Christians. That just stands to reason, especially in the context of persecution. You are going to want to be with other people who are thinking like you think.

Though we are not actively being physically persecuted where we live today, we still want to get together with people who think like we do, who enjoy the same persons that we enjoy. One of my best friends, outside of my own family, is a man named Jay Vaughn. Jay lives in Kentucky. We keep in touch through letter writing and an occasional phone call. But when I get together with Jay Vaughn, we really enjoy one another's company. And there are good reasons for that. We went to the same junior high and high school together. We are both believers; we both embrace Reformed theology. Jay is a beekeeper and I am a beekeeper. Jay enjoys turkey hunting; I enjoy turkey hunting. Jay enjoys bow hunting for deer; I enjoy bow hunting for deer. There are many similarities, so that when we get together, it is easy for us to find things to talk about. We enjoy one another's company because we share so much in common.

Well, that is the way it is with Christians. Though our secondary interests may be different, our primary interest in the same: we both love the Lord. You might put a little more salt or a little more pepper on your mashed potatoes than I do, but if the bulk of the meal is mashed potatoes, and if we both like mashed potatoes, then we are going to get along just fine. And the bulk of what we enjoy and what really motivates us and gives us joy in life is the Lord. And we want to be with other people who love the Lord. So it is very logical it is natural that Christians would want to be together. It is also very practical. The Bible says that the church, the assembly of believers, is the pillar and ground of the truth. I think that a lot of people are mixed up about that. Many people think that theology books are the pillar and ground of the truth, but they are not. Some people think that seminaries are the pillar and ground of the truth, but they are not. Some people think that Promise Keepers or some other parachurch organization is the pillar and ground of the truth, but it is not. The Lord founded one institution: his church; and it is the local church that is the pillar and ground of the truth. When we come together, then we hear the truth proclaimed, we hear the truth emphasized. There may be confusing thoughts that have arisen in our minds through the week. We have begun to have doubts. We wonder if it is really worth it living the Christian life. But then we enter the house of God and the presence of God’s people. We hear the truth being proclaimed, and our faith is strengthened and our thinking is set right. There is no substitute for being a vital part, an active part, of one of the Lord's local churches that is steadfastly continuing in the apostles' doctrine, fellowship, observance of the ordinances, and public worship.

So public worship is a priority for people who are born again, but as I said, it doesn't just happen naturally. We need to make it a priority. To prioritize something means to put it first. Most of us do well when we put the worship of God first in the day. I recognize that not everyone is what is called a morning person. I find that there are many, many fewer morning persons today in the city than there were years ago on the farm. There was no discussion as to whether or not you were a morning person. You just got up at four o'clock like everyone else and did the work. I recognize, though, that not everyone functions at his best in the morning. However, for most of us, if we are going to have quality private worship, we need to give it priority in the day and worship God first. If it means getting up a little bit earlier, then go to bed a little bit earlier. The key to getting up early is going to bed early. Give God the best of your day. It may be that the best of your time is when the children have gone to bed at night, and then you have some time. You are able to stay awake then. Give God the best time to worship Him.

Give God the priority of time in the week. God has set apart one day out of seven to be a holy day unto Himself. How good to start the week off by giving worship priority in the House of God with the people of God. Prioritize worship then in your time, in your day, in your week. I want to tell some of you children and young people you should give God priority in your life. Give God the best of your years. Give Him the sap of your strength. How thankful I am that God saved me when I was about fourteen years old and called me to preach only about three years later. I have wasted a lot of time, but not nearly so much time as I would have wasted if I had not had this controlling principle guiding me all along. I am a Christian, and I am called to fulltime service for the Lord. I hope that God will save you young, and that you will give God the early dew of your life that the fresh morning hours of your life will be dedicated to God, and that you will serve Him all through the noontide and through the sunset years of your life. Prioritize worship in your day, in your week, in your life. Prioritize worship in your mind. The Lord says that we are to love Him with all of our heart, soul and our mind and our strength. We are to search God’s Word and find out how God wants to be worshiped. We allow Him to inform us. We're no longer conformed to the pattern of this world, but we're transformed by the renewing of our minds as we allow Him to saturate our thinking, to teach us to love what He loves, to hate what He hates. Worship God with your mind. Then, worship God with your heart. You cannot really worship God if your heart is set on something else. If you're constantly distracted when you are kissing Jesus, then Jesus says, "You draw near to me with you lips, but your heart is far away from me. Stop it. Draw near to me with your heart." Worship God, then, with your whole heart, whole-heartedly, lovingly, and joyfully. I think it is impossible for us to worship God if we are never joyful.

I received a rebuke just this week as I was walking and praying. I often am engrossed with serious thoughts. I have been thinking a lot about infant baptism lately. I am reading books on infant baptism. So I had this on my mind. I was walking down the road, and I noticed that I had a scowl on my face as I was thinking about infant baptism. I was bringing all this up to the Lord, and the thought came to me, " Are you only bringing your problems and your perplexities to God? Remember the Lord says, 'Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice!'" I took that as a rebuke from the Lord that there are many things to be happy in. Do not spend all of your prayer time just dredging up sick people and what is wrong. Take time to consciously and whole-heartedly rejoice in the Lord. I find that when I do that, and I think that you will find that when you do that as well, that God will put a little sweet drop of candy in our mouth that will last all the day through as we rejoice in the Lord.

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Scripture from The Holy Bible, New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by
Thomas Nelson, Inc.