Knowing God and Desiring to be with Him through True Worship

By Nancy L Cox, age 18

I’m sure you’ve been asked or heard someone being asked "are you saved?” But I must ask something a little more than that: Do you know Jesus as your personal Savior?  Did He save you from your sins and do you have a relationship with Him? Do you know God? Is Jesus number one in your life? Are you hungering and thirsting for God and for His righteousness?

To be able to know God, you have to have a desire (thirst) for Him and His Word, which gives life to our being. God’s Word helps us to draw near to Him. As you seek His face by feeding on His Word, you learn more about God and His laws. The more you learn in God’s Word and apply it to your life, the more you will want to read His Word. 

“As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for you, O God. (2) My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I and appear before God? (3) My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me ‘were is your God?’ (8) The Lord will command His loving kindness in the daytime, and in the night His song shall be with me-a prayer to the God of my life. (11) Why are you cast down O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me?  Hope in God; for I will yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God.” Ps.42: 1-3,8,11

True devotion is spending time with God through reading His word and meditating on it. In John it talks about how Jesus is the Word of God, how He came down to this world to give us eternal life. It speaks of how Jesus was the light that came into the world to give light and how the world did not receive Him but those who received Him; He gave them the power to become the Children of God (John. 1:1-18)

When you read God’s Word, you are able to find out what God wants for you and if you believe in God’s Word and its Truth, then you believe in Jesus. But in order to believe you must come to the realization that you are a sinner, because the Bible says that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:9-20). Jesus came down to this earth, to save us from our sins and to set us free by paying for our sins with His own blood (Romans 3:21-26; 5:6-11). 

After you accept that Jesus died for your sins and rose up from the dead on the third day, you must confess it with your mouth and God said the you will be saved (Romans, 10:9-13). Then Jesus will enter into you and you will become a new person. If you have done this then you must begin to learn how to live. But the only way to know Christ wants you to live is by reading His Word and desiring to draw near to Him (James 4:8).

Another way of showing your gratitude to God for saving you is by praising and honoring Him through true worship (Ps. 95:1-8). Worship is not just going to Church every Sunday and mouthing the words to the songs. True worship means when you’re at Church truly worship God, giving your whole being to giving God praise. When you’re at home give your whole being to the praise and glory of God. When you’re reading His Word and meditating in it, apply it to your life and ask God to use it to help you to bring glory to His name. When you’re with your friends, ask God to help you to build them up, to encourage them in Him and to help your conversation to be glorifying to Him (Ps. 19:14). Don’t be intimidated by your friends.  If you are, that means you are putting them before God and that’s not what God wants.

God wants to be first in our life.  He needs to be first over our first over our friends, our family, over our school, over our things and over and over our life. Christianity is not for sissies. It takes major guts to stand up for your faith. You need to keep God’s Word in your heart and mind so you will be able to have the armor to stand up against all of the darts that Satan throws at you and to keep you strong. But you can’t just do it in one night.

If you’ve ever done anything in your life, like learning to read, or playing an instrument or some kind of sport, then you know that just about everything you do you need to work hard at. It’s the same way with God’s Word if you stop for a while you become spiritually week and less resistant to temptations that come your way.

It’s not easy at first but if you keep it up, it will eventually become second nature to you just like eating-if you don’t eat, you starve. A good way to start is by praying and asking God to help you to learn from His Word. Ask Him to meet you in His Word and He will.