Thursday, August 29, 2013

Five Minute Friday - Worship

Five Minute FridayWriting again this week with Lisa Jo Baker and the Five Minute Friday Crew. This blessed, beautiful place where we open our hearts and let words and tears and the inner workings of our lives bleed and flow and dance across the virtual pages. Yes, this community opens wide and invites you in to share. Come and visit and read. You will be blessed.

This Week: Worship

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It’s still anniversary week, so I’m working out a way as I write to make this prompt fit! Bear with me …

Before him, I just didn’t really get it. I didn’t really understand what a relationship would be like when you added the God factor. In theory I did. I grew up in the church; raised by faithful parents who loved the Lord and taught me the way things were supposed to be. I’d heard the phrase about being “unequally yoked” for the longest time and thought I understood the concept.

I’d been dating for a long time. I used to joke that I didn’t have any real addictions – didn’t have a problem with drugs, didn’t really drink all that much, didn’t have any vices. Just boys. Then men. That was enough. Bad boys and bad men can be as much of an addiction as anything else, so I suppose in that twisted little way that was mine. And it wasn’t much of a joke.

When he and I met, I was pretty damaged and had wandered far off the path. My faith was frail and battered and was held up only by the strong foundation that had been planted long ago. In the early days, we even went to church together and served in different ministries, and yet all the while, there was a huge piece missing.

If I’m being really honest, it really wasn’t until our desert journey began that we discovered that deep, spiritual awakening together that you often read about, hear other people talking about, and maybe dream of encountering one day. It wasn’t until everything else was stripped away from our lives and we had nowhere to turn except to Him that we began to embrace the lives that we were meant to live. It wasn’t until we had almost nothing that we were able to look around and see that we had everything that we needed.

This life of active worship: where you discover that thanksgiving precedes the miracle; that surrender is the key to fulfilled living; and that the deepest faith comes from living a life of moments connected to the sacred in the everyday – these are our discoveries. This is our sacrifice. This is our transformation.

Placing God in the center of our marriage and of our lives; placing the worship and service of Him and to His creation at the top of our list; understanding that we want to live and serve each other in our marriage as Christ would – that has made all the difference. And we are blessed.

Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand.
Psalm 95:6-7


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9 comments :

  1. Rebekah! I love this. "that Thanksgiving precedes the miracle" oh this is so true. Thank you for writing from your heart. :)

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    1. Thank you for visiting Wendy! That precious lesson is one I learned from the amazing Ann Voskamp. The wonderful gift of eucharisteo. It has been a life changer.

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  2. Beautiful! I love that you are writing and celebrating all week long! Like a Honeymoon again! And this: " It wasn’t until we had almost nothing that we were able to look around and see that we had everything that we needed." Isn't this just always the case? How often we forget or replace and lose sight of all that we need, 'His hand hath provided...'

    Love you sweet friend! And once again - Happy Anniversary!

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  3. What a blessing to have found one to be with and you CAN be "equally yoked". Thanks for being so honest and sharing your heart. It means a lot. I'm so glad you can worship together!

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  4. I absolutely love how you took this prompt and weaved it into your relationship with your husband! There is nothing more beautiful than couples who worship together! Blessings!

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  5. Thanksgiving precedes the miracle!!!! A to the MEN! Love this.Be blessed:)

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  6. So Jennifer wrote what I was going to! :) That phrase is amazing. Thanksgiving precedes the miracle, I need that hanging in my house as a reminder. Great post, friend!

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  7. Awesome post, Rebekah! Like everyone else, I love the phrase about thanksgiving preceding the miracle. But this was my favorite part, "the deepest faith comes from living a life of moments connected to the sacred in the everyday." I've been accused of analyzing my life too much but if I don't I miss the sacred connections. It was great to talk with you tonight...look forward to doing it again!

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  8. Love that you connected surrender with worship - so did I!
    Visiting from Vanessa's Be The Gift giveaway :)

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