There is no feat of humanity’s mind, heart, soul, or strength that can help us reach God. It all falls short no matter how formidable it might seem—the mind’s highest thoughts, the heart’s most passionate experiences, the soul’s deepest intuition, the body’s greatest achievements. No, God is higher, richer, deeper, greater. Indeed:
“…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…”
Romans 3:23
But, what if He was willing to come down to our level and meet us? What if God wanted to make Himself known to us—to introduce Himself in person and by name? The good news is that our falling short is not the last word. In fact, the very next Scriptural statement is this:
“…and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus…”
Romans 3:24
God reveals Himself through all of creation that He spoke into being, through His Word in the Scriptures (Psalm 19), and through the Word in Jesus (John 1:1-14; Hebrews 1:1-3). As we have said, the worshiping life is one of revelation and response, like prayer among many others. God’s revelation, then, is like fuel for the fire of worship that leads to the smoke of prayer and other healthy worship responses.
You might remember Jesus quoting this Scripture when He was tempted in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13), but notice them in their original context:
“And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that He might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. And He humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man does not live by bread alone but man lives by every word that come from the mouth of the Lord.”
Deuteronomy 8:2-3
Do you see the picture? Just as our bodies need food to live, our souls need God’s Word to live. What diet and exercise is to the body, revelation and response is to the soul. Perhaps, you have made adjustments to your diet and exercise at the outset of 2022. What would it look like for you to reset your worshiping life of Scripture and prayer in 2022?
For most of us, our bodies need to eat less, and our souls need to eat more. Make a plan to digest every Word from God little by little over the course of your worshiping life that God gave to you at great cost to Himself. Find ways to hold His Word in your mind, heart, and soul to fuel your life of worship.
Let’s let God’s revelation fuel the flames of our worship, feed our souls to truly live.
