Praising Him in the rain! (literally)

Psalm 46:10 "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."

Today was just one of those wonderful, I can't believe what I did days! I got up and knew it was going to be raining soon so I got dressed to do my 3 mile walk. By the time I got started with my walk it was drizzling but it was okay, I had my ball cap on and my Cowboys (Dallas) wind-rain pullover on. About halfway through my walk the rain was steady and my wind breaker is no longer keeping me dry. I am soaked to the bone and rain is dripping from my ball cap. It felt exhilarating! I kept thinking about how life giving rain truly is and I just worshipped God the rest of my walk. When I got home, I was ready to shout!!!!!

My quiet time today focused on worship. And I was challenged by the devotion I'm reading to sing a song of praise to God when I was finished with my reading. Daniel Doss Band's "Blessed is the One" is what I choose and I replayed it another time. The devotional I'm reading is by Rebecca St. James and it is titled, Pure. The scripture verse for today came from Psalm 66:1-4. "Shout joyful praises to God, all the earth! Sing about the glory of his name! Tell the world how glorious he is. Say to God, 'How awesome are your deeds! Your enemies cringe before your mighty power. Everything on earth will worship you; they will sing your praises, shouting your name in glorious songs'."

Have you ever just thought about how glorious the praise of heaven will be like? How loud it will be? Not noisy loud, just the volume of all creation praising God's name. It takes my breath away thinking about being in His throne room singing to Him. Yet we can come before Him every day and sing praises to Him and join with creation in praising how mighty He is right now. I use to sing really well but cheerleading ruined my singing voice when I was in 10th grade. (Lost my voice at cheer camp that summer and when my vocals returned 3 days later my voice was deeper.) So now when I sing I don't feel adequate enough but that's okay my heart is toward worshipping God and that's all that matters to Him. Sing praise to Him, He deserves all of it and more.

Rebecca St. James shared in today's devotion titled "Called to Worship" about her definition of worship. "I believe worship is the greatest thing we can do here on earth.... Worship is our calling; it's what we're created to do. ......There is such a need for it today. I define worship simply as our love response to God's love for us. When we express our love to God, when we open ourselves up to the reality of how much He truly loves us, living radically for Him simply becomes a natural lifestyle. It's so much more than going through the motions and just going to church on Sunday and Wednesday and saying, 'I'm a Christian.' It's living for God 24-7. .... To worship God is to be overwhelmed by His greatness and glory." She then goes on to ask questions in the Living It Out section. "What kind of worship is appropriate for you to bring to God today? Joyful exuberance, thankful devotion, humble adoration, or reverent silence? God will delight in any of these offerings from your lips and from your heart. Think about who He is. Praise Him for His faithfulness and constancy. Praise Him for His creations and for His blessings in your life. Then sing a worship song to Him." Seriously, try it....think of your favorite praise song, worship song, or hymn and just belt it out to the One who created you to sing it to Him. I took my walk in the rain before I did my quiet time so I just had a double blessing this morning!!

God is so amazing how He takes the every day little things in our life and reveals how truly great He is. I've been petitioning Him about a specific topic lately and though my patience has endured, I'm growing very impatient but lately He has helped me through the frustration of the request. God prepares us before He gives us the blessing or fulfills the request we're asking for. God also asks for our exhortation, encouragement, and prayer. Philippians 4:4-9 says this about those 3 subjects, "Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say, Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me - practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you." ESV