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Built by God, Built for God, Made to Worship God

“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

1 Corinthians 10:31

We were built by God: “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male & female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). “For you created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13). And, “everyone who is called by my name whom I have created for my glory, whom I formed and made” (Isaiah 43:7).  This is why we were created. We were created for His glory.

We were built for God: “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). Now why would the Lord have to put this in the Bible? In the beginning He already established that He is God! It’s because He knows us. He knows our weaknesses and our tendencies to wander. He had to put this in the Bible for us because He knows our tendency is to look everywhere else but to Him to get peace, joy, contentment, and fulfillment. We’ll run to people, look to money, power, position, job, cars, houses, clothes, drugs, and alcohol to help us feel good about ourselves and it doesn’t work because we always want more. Nothing satisfies our longings but God.

When we’re with other people, we often forget about God. We become fearful people-pleasers and enslave ourselves to their whims. We give them power over us. We allow them to become huge in our lives and that’s not a good thing.

“When Jesus was teaching in a crowd one of the people asked Him, ‘Of all the commandments, which is the most important?’ Jesus said, ‘The most important one is this, The Lord our God is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength”’ (Mark 12:28). That means we are built forGod. We were built to love Him, to worship Him.

You and I are here for His glory alone. Each one of us has gifts and talents and abilities that He has equipped us with to use for His purposes and to bless other people in His name. That’s why we’re here. We were created to glorify God and enjoy Him forever!  

We were made to worship God: He put longings in our hearts that beg to be fulfilled. We have desires to be loved and cared for. We want faithfulness and love.  Only He can deliver those desires of our hearts; we can’t receive them unless we know Him.  We want to love and be loved. Only He can teach us how to do that. When we read our Bibles, we will discover this for ourselves. It’s the truth. Start with the book of John and look at the relationship between Jesus and His Father. We need to learn to relate to others through His love and not ours. Our human love is conditional and full of flaws. When you know God, you find out He’s a God of abundance. He never runs out of provision. His love is unconditional and He will never run out of love or be too busy to hear us and take care of us. His capacity to bless is limitless. No one else is like that. This is who wants us to worship Him!

We are going to worship something. I’m going to say it again: we are going to worship something. God put longing in our hearts and that longing is only satisfied by falling in love with Him. That’s how He’s wired us. We were made to worship Him and whenever we begin to worship anything other than Him, it eventually breaks down. It doesn’t work. It doesn’t satisfy because it’s idolatry. We just keep wanting more of whatever it is that we are craving, and that, dear Sistas, is not from God.

Do you know why we have these longings? Because we are made in the image of God and He has longings. As women, we long for romance, we long to be loved and cared for, we long for approval and affection…we long to be appreciated...we long for peace and contentment. If there is a void in our hearts, only God can fill it. And He invites us to come to Him because God does have longings. He has longings for His children to draw near to Him and love Him and worship Him:  “Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you, He rises to show you compassion” (Isaiah 30:18). “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters...” (Isaiah 55:1). “Give ear and come to Me; hear me, that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you” (Isaiah 55:3).

These are tender and gracious invitations from the Lord: “I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me. To a nation that did not call on my name, I said, ‘Here am I,’  ‘Here am I.’ All day long I held out my hands to an obstinate people who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations [women deceived, women believing lies about themselves, strongholds] – a people who provoke me to my very face” (Isaiah 65:1-3).

God promises to never leave His children even when we rebel: “…when you and your children return to the Lord and obey Him with all your heart…then God will restore your fortunes and restore your soul ... and He will gather you again where He scattered you. Even if you have been banished to the most distant lands…from there the Lord your God will gather you and bring you back”(Deuteronomy 30:1-3). And He says, “Woe to them, because they have strayed from me! Destruction to them because they have rebelled against me! I long to redeem them but they speak lies against me. They do not cry out to me from their beds”(Hosea 7:13-14).

Yes, we have longings to worship because that’s how we’re built!  “My soul is consumed with longing for your laws at all times” (Psalm 119:20). This is the right kind of longing.  When we are seeking Him, we find that He “satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles” (Psalm 103:5).

What is our hunger pang? Only He can fill it:

“… for He satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things” (Psalm 107:9). “He grants peace to your borders and satisfies you with the finest of wheat” (Psalm 147:14). Now here’s an invitation to us and it’s a longing of our Lord: “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). We were made by God. We were made for God. We were made to worship this God who longs for us, as His people.  Sistas, let’s worship Him now in every area of our lives!

Copyright 2015 Totally Devoted 1 by Polly Balint, that girl marketing, LLC.