Renewed Mind

Welcome to Day 26 of the series Speak Praise as part of the Write 31 Days challenge.

Living out a daily journey of speaking praise, I am surprised at the direction the Lord is taking me. For all the brainstorming and outlining and scriptures about praise and the power of the word, I could really spend a year delving into the significance of our worship and our words.

But living this journey, and being thrown into the middle of the storms of life, have tested what I think I know. Truly, it will take a lifetime of walking with the Lord to learn what he means by worship in Spirit and in Truth. How do we learn what that even looks like?

Meditating on praise this month has lead me down a humbling path. Praise should render a penitent heart. The sound of our voice becomes like a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal if it doesn't erupt from a heart changed by God's love and grace. It forces me to search my heart, my thoughts, and reflect on the sobering repercussions of my words.

Why are words so significant? I have a theory, and we don't have to search too far into the Bible to see it. "In the beginning"...God spoke. The Word is the very manifestation of God's divinity.

In the beginning [before all time] was the Word (Christ), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself. JOHN 1 (AMP)

But when the serpent tempted Eve in the garden, into taking the forbidden fruit, what was his hidden tool? Words. Counterfeit words deceiving God's children into unbelief.

And the woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. GENESIS 3:6

I've tasted that fruit. The deliciously enticing flavor of a juicy word that would make me privy to information and I feel I must have it now or I'll be left out.

Lately, I've read a few articles on the use of technology namely the devices we're glued to that tether us to a world of knowledge. What power we feel with it in our grasp. How enticing it is to have the world at our finger tips.

And especially because I have seen how God can use even a thing like social media to penetrate our hearts for His kingdom, it is a tricky balance in discerning God's word within the noise.

The way to do this—to find the balance, the measure of truth in an age when everything we read on the web sounds appealing—the answer is found in the timeless pages of a book sitting on our coffee tables and night stands (no, not our smart phones): the Word of God delivering the Good News.

How do we begin to worship in Spirit and in Truth?

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. ROMANS 12:2

We turn our everyday lives into worship when we start with the right source, by letting God's word transform our thought patterns so that the fruit we produce looks more like his will than our own. This is our spiritual act of worship.

If you are reading my blog for the first time and would like to see other posts in the series Speak Praise, click here. If anything you've read here has been a blessing to you, please comment and share with others on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. Thank you for reading!