Twenty Minutes of Praise

Every once in a while I read an article that grips my soul and stays with me for several days. I usually copy such articles and pass them around to others since I want them to share the blessing I received from what I read. It happened again last Friday.

When my new copy of Discipleship Journal came ( my favorite journal along with Leadership), I quickly soaked up two articles. One of them has impacted me deeply the last few days. It's called "The 20 Minute Worship Challenge." Becky Harling tells of a major health scare that blew into her life with hurricane force... and how the gentle wind of a friend's words gave her some amazing peace amidst the storm. Becky writes:

"Becky, before you even open your Bible for morning devotions, will you offer God 20 minutes of worship?" That simple challenge...changed my life...The first morning, I put on some worship music, got down on my knees, and allowed the songs to prompt thoughts of praise to the Lord. To my surprise the 20 minutes flew by, and I found myself excited to worship again the next morning. In the second morning, I praised my way through the alphabet, worshiping God for His attributes that correlated with each letter...

As I intentionally incorporated praise into each day, I began to change. I grew more hopeful and less fearful. I experienced a deeper sense of God's love and goodness. Worry was replaced with calm, and anxiety with faith.

The day after reading this article, I took up Becky on her worship challenge. Quite honestly, I felt a little uncomfortable diverting from my routine of reading a portion of Scripture from my One Year Bible and then going through my prayer list. I wasn't used to beginning my day with worship. But then it hit me why I felt this way -- one reason was pride. The second reason was it took the attention off of myself. I felt the Lord convicting me of how my pride and self-centeredness (which are so closely entwined) had kept me from exalting Jesus in my prayer time. Too often my prayer time has been "give me" prayers: "Lord, please help me with this problem. Father, please do so and so in my children's lives."

But for the last few days I'm focusing on the majesty and glory and holiness of the Lord. And like Becky, I feel the Lord changing my heart. Life isn't all about me...it's all about Him!

The last few mornings I've been using some Psalms to focus my attention on God and His worthiness to be praised. The first one I prayed was Psalm 92, which begins with these words of praise:

It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to the Most High. It is good to proclaim your unfailing love in the morning, your faithfulness in the evening...

This morning at our devotional at the Service Center, I read portions of this article, and then led us in praise as I prayed portions of Psalms 92-93. It was a holy moment as we spent our prayer time totally focused on the majesty of Almighty God.

May I invite you to join me in this 20 minute worship challenge? If you decide to do this, please let your fellow bloggers know how the Lord gave you a vision of His awesome nature, and in doing so how He changed your heart.

He truly is worthy to be praised.

Jim