Hendrickson Publishers - Worship: Spiritual Practices for Everyday Life

Everyday life today is busier and more distracting than it has ever been before. While cell phones and texting make it easier to keep track of children and each other, they also make it harder to get away from the demands that overwhelm us. Time, it seems, is a shrinking commodity. But God, the Creator of time, has given us the keys to leading a life that may be challenging but not overwhelming. In fact, he offers us tools to do what seems impossible and come away refreshed and renewed. These tools are called spiritual practices, or spiritual disciplines.

Spiritual practices are holy habits. They are rooted in Gods word, and they go back to creation itself. God has hardwired us to thrive when we obey him, even when it seems like his instructions defy our common sense. When we engage in the holy habits that God has ordained, time takes on a new dimension. What seems impossible is actually easy; its easy because we are tapping into Gods resources.

The holy habits that we call spiritual practices are all geared to position us in a place where we can allow the Holy Spirit to work in us and through us, to grant us power and strength to do the things we cant do on our own. They take us to a place where we can become intimate with God.

While holy habits and everyday life may sound like opposites, they really arent.

As you learn to incorporate spiritual practices into your life, youll find that everyday life is easier. At the same time, you will draw closer to God and come to a place where you can luxuriate in his rich blessings. Here is a simple example. Elizabeth Collings hated running household errands. Picking up dry cleaning, doing the grocery shopping, and chauffeuring her kids felt like a never-ending litany of menial chores. One day she had a simple realization that changed her life. That day she began to use her chore time as a time of prayer and fellowship with God.

Whenever Elizabeth walked the aisle of the supermarket, she prayed for each person who would eat the item of food she selected. On her way to pick up her children, she would lay their lives out before God, asking him to be there for them even when she couldnt. Each errand became an opportunity for fellowship with God. The chore that had been so tedious became a precious part of her routine that she cherished.

The purpose of these study guides is to help you use spiritual practices to make your own life richer, fuller, and deeper. The series includes twenty-four spiritual practices that are the building blocks of Christian spiritual formation. Each practice is a holy habit that has been modeled for us in the Bible. The practices are acceptance, Bible study and meditation, celebration, community, confession, contemplation, faith, fasting, forgiveness, gratitude, hospitality, justice, mentoring, outreach, prayer, reconciliation, Sabbath and rest, service, silence, simplicity, solitude, stewardship, submission, and worship.

As you move through the practices that you select, remember Christs promise in Matthew 11:2830:

Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.

Introduction

to the Practice of Worship

Often we tend to associate worship with the event related to Sunday morning in a particular locale. Yet consider what worship might look like if was stripped of this cultural association with Sunday mornings and instead found expression in the everyday moments of your daily life. A missionary once said, Our work is our prayer. Lets replace the word prayer with the word worship and proclaim that our work is our worship.

Seeing daily life through this lens brings new dimension and vitality to your sense of purpose and missionto your vocation, or calling, in life. In fact, not only should our work be seen as our worship, but all manner of motions we exert day in and day out are assertions of praise to God for life and vocation. Whether it be through practicing law or medicine, waiting on tables, managing or assisting in an office or business, teaching, writing a book, baking homemade bread, cleaning your house (or someone elses), homeschooling your children, sitting in traffic, or going to the gym or grocery store, the practice of worship happens every day. In this study, we will explore the many facets of worship and how women of faith can appropriate the practice in their daily lives. We examine the ways in which worship is multidimensional, creative, individual, and holy. Lets tune our hearts to be implements of worship in all that we do, wherever we are.

C H A P T E R 1

God-Struck

Its All about Him

I was dancing before the L ord , who chose me above your father and all his family! He appointed me as the leader of Israel, the people of the L ord , so I celebrate before the L ord . Yes, and I am willing to look even more foolish than this, even to be humiliated in my own eyes!

2 Samuel 6:2122

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For this study, read 2 Samuel 6:127:29.

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In Dance of the God-Struck in the Everyday Matters Bible for Women, Mark Buchanan describes the story of King David moving the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem to make a statement to the nations that God is king in this kingdom, lord of this land. The king acknowledges the King beyond him, above him, to whom he owes all fealty. It is not a political gesture but an act of worship, says Buchanan: So David brings the ark to Jerusalemand he dances in worship. Choreographed by yearning and wonder, this is the dance of the God-struck, the God-smitten.

Think about a time when you were utterly smitten with someoneperhaps your first crush or when you first fell in love. Its a feeling like no other; that person dominates your thoughts and feelings. That is how David felt about God. He had abandoned every thought of himself and was utterly immersed in God. He was God-struck.