Psalm 63: My Soul Thirsts for You1 O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
2 So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory.
3 Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.
4 So I will bless you as long as I live;
in your name I will lift up my hands.
God is definitely doing big things in Forest Hills Community Church, and last night’s UNleashed Bible study was evidence of that. We opened in prayer, and got the ball rolling with an open discussion of what it feels like when “something happens” during a worship service. Not to be lead by our emotions, we dug into Scripture to make sure that everything we do is a biblical response to God, which will be a key teaching for the duration of this course.
Psalm 63:1-4 was our text for the week, and after fully understanding the back-story of what was going on in David’s life when he wrote that verse, it’s a perfect instruction to Christians on how to worship, regardless of your circumstance. Although David was headed into the desolate wilderness, with no clue if he would ever return and no immediate hope of resuming his reign as king, he still sought God intentionally, desperately, relentlessly.
The discussions during this session were phenomenal, thanks to the packed house and the thoughtful contributions everyone made to the conversation. Topics included: distractions we face when worshiping God, which phrases in the text resonate with you personally, what the difference is between a worship service that “works” and one that doesn’t, and why we raise our hands during worship. The contributions of the group to the discussions allowed us to assess what we do and why we do it, and more importantly, if we’re worshiping the way the Bible indicates we ought to.
Next, we got an opportunity to practice worshiping God. We sang two songs with hands raised to bless the Lord and hearts seeking Him. There aren’t words to describe the beauty of what happened during that time of worship, the sound of God’s people exalting Him and singing of their adoration for the Lord was so amazing.
We meet again on Thursday at 8pm. In the meantime, be worshipers of God in everything you do. I hope to see you praising the Lord on Sunday morning at 10am (we also have pre-service worship at 9am, which you are welcome to attend).
-Johanna
UNleashed: Worship Bible Study
Thursdays @ 8:00pm
INSIDE the FHCC Campus (6708 Ingram St)
www.fhcchurch.com
