Approaching God — Week 1
By Penelope Clevenger, Pastor's Wife, Family Fellowship Church of God, St. Charles, Mo.

Psalm 33:1-3; Psalm 66:2; Psalm 92:1; Psalm 116:1, 2; Psalm 136:1-3; Psalm 147:7

We have a beautiful granddaughter, Hanna Rose.  She is sixteen months and our “little miss sunshine.”  Since her birth I have sung to her many songs, but her favorite is “You are My Sunshine”  I honestly believe that she enjoys the song so much because MeMe ( that's me) makes motions and silly faces at her the entire time.  Now, she is old enough that she is making the motions with me.  We have an absolute blast!  This activity also allows me to sing songs that tell of God’s love.  Even though she is very young, for that one moment in time, Hanna Rose and I are worshipping our Creator and King together.  I often imagine Him standing there and watching us as we sing and make our motions.  She puts everything she has into it and it is the cutest thing!  I know that we are having fun, but I like to think that He is delighted with our joyful praise.

Coming from a musical family, music has always been a huge part of who I am.  I continually breathe with a song in my heart and often coming from my lips audibly.  It doesn't matter what I am doing or where I am.  It's just natural for me.  (I used to get in trouble for humming during tests in school!)  I just cannot help myself.  This, I believe, is truly my gift from God.  Music has always been my way of escape in the bad or stressful times and my way of expression during the healing times or the many times of rejoicing.  It has been my constant and consoling friend.  Singing is an opportunity to teach others, preach a message, or simply share a story of love with another.  God knew that we wouldn’t all step into a pulpit or stand before a classroom, so He gave us another way to share His story and a very special way to communicate to Him and with Him.  How we approach Him is most important.

We should always approach God with gladness and rejoicing.  Psalm 33 begins, “Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous!  For praise from the upright is beautiful.  Praise the Lord with the harp; make melody to Him with an instrument of ten strings.  Sing to Him a new song; play skillfully with a shout of joy.”  In other words, come to Him rejoicing and sing or play your very best with excitement and joy!  Give Him the best of your talents.  Dare to write your own song to sing before Him.  Psalm 66:2 says to “make His praise glorious!”

We should approach God with honesty, openness and music.  Psalms is a book of poetry, praises, prayers and love songs to the King.  He loves music and He desires our praise and worship.  He desires our adoration.  He delights in those moments spent together with Him.  Each Psalm is an expression of that moment in time, whether good or bad, happy or sad, joyful or mourning.  The Psalms were written to express that emotion and give God the glory.  There is a Psalm for every occasion.  Psalm 92 offers a praise to the Lord for His love and faithfulness. “It is good to praise the Lord, and to make music to Your name"(NIV).

We should approach God with thanksgiving.  Psalm 116:  “I love the Lord, because He has heard my voice and my supplications.  Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live.”  Psalm 136, “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!  For His mercy endures forever.  Oh give thanks to the God of gods!  For His mercy endures forever.  Oh give thanks to the Lord of lords!  For His mercy endures forever.”  This is a wonderful Psalm to recite with your congregation.  Thanksgiving is a very special time to share this Psalm.  Psalm 147:7:  “Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving.”

We should approach God with praises.  Beginning with Psalm 147 and throughout the remainder of the Psalms we are told to Praise the Lord!  “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!”

When I was growing up and wanted something, I knew how to approach my daddy.  Most girls learn this at a very early age.  I knew that if I came to him with a demanding or haughty attitude, I most likely would leave empty handed.  If I really wanted something badly enough, I knew that giving that certain little pouty lip, dripping with sweetness and love, and the puppy-dog innocent eyes and flirty, batting eyelashes (you know the one, girls) could get me almost anything.  We don’t have to go to that extreme with God, but He does want us to approach Him with sweetness and expectancy.  And just like our daddies here on earth, His heart is melted.  We may not get everything that we want simply because it isn’t good for us or may potentially be dangerous, but He loves it when we ask Him, and how we ask Him is very important.

We could go on and on with how we should approach God, but the important thing is to approach Him daily.  He desires to have a relationship with us.  He never leaves us, but we often forget to acknowledge that He is there.

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