Forever, The Joy of the Lord, God is the Strength of My Heart, Not for A Moment

What about the latest news here and around the world makes you feel like life doesn’t make sense?

²⁵ Whom have I in heaven but You?
And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.
²⁶ My flesh and my heart may fail,
But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
²⁷ For, behold, those who are far from You will perish;
You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to You.
²⁸ But as for me, the nearness of God is my good;
I have made the Lord God my refuge,
That I may tell of all Your works.

Worship is important because it matters to God and when we gather on Sundays, God sees how we worship Him. Worship impacts our life today, and our future. It’s a spiritual thermometer that measures the level of our interest in worshiping God. Worship is also a thermostat – it allows you to adjust so that you will enjoy the presence of God amid life’s great challenges. But when you don’t feel like worshiping, what should you do? People can try to honor and worship God through tradition or religion but neglect His commandments (Mark 7:6-8). If we love God, we obey God fully. To “obey is better than sacrifice” (1 Samuel 15:22) – to obey is true worship!

Worship is our proper response to who God is, what He has done, and our trust in what He will continue to do. So even

WHEN LIFE DOES NOT MAKE SENSE, WORSHIP GOD.

We can learn how from a psalm by Asaph:

Asaph declares what he knows: God is good (Psalm 73:1). However, he was close to “stumbling”, because he was envious of the prosperity of the evil people (vv. 2-3). Some of the worst pains come from things out of your control – when you have family members who go through difficulties, when we get sick, we naturally tend to withdraw from God. The question about God’s goodness amid suffering can be very difficult to answer. Different religions try to explain this – for Hindus, it’s karma. For Buddhists, it’s caused by desire and attachment, which you should let go of. For Islam, it’s punishment. Atheists explain suffering as random chance, bad luck, with no ultimate purpose. Christianity has the best explanation: the world is broken because of sin, God uses suffering redemptively, Jesus suffered unjustly so He knows our suffering, and one day, God will eventually remove suffering.

Asaph continues to focus on evil people in succeeding verses (vv. 4-13) – his perspective “paints” his words – the evil ones are doing so well, they are proud, and they do whatever they want to do. They mock, they speak against God, yet everything seems to be okay with them and their friends – and again, these are Asaph’s perceptions! He sees them as “always at ease” and contrasting himself to them. He said the things he did were “in vain”, because while he kept living a righteous life, keeping his heart pure and living a life of innocence, the evil ones seem to be enjoying life more! Worshiping is being honest with God. Asaph was honest with what he was thinking and feeling. But he realized the danger of his flow of thought (vv. 14-16). He couldn’t see justice – it was troublesome for Asaph.

When things don’t go our way, we resolve to neglect reading the Bible, then we become more anxious as we neglect prayer and worship. We become angry and indifferent towards God and others. This leads to bitterness, isolation, hardens our hearts, and makes us cynical and skeptical, which leads to depression. If we are not careful, we will self-destruct. Almost 50% of Christians when encountering problems would stop studying the Bible and worshiping God.

Then, Asaph came to the sanctuary of God – he chose to worship instead of staying away from God (v17). He sought God’s presence, and Asaph’s perspective was changed. Worship is entering God’s presence, and it changes your heart. There Asaph saw the big picture that provided him the comfort he needed.

When David was surrounded and threatened, he wrote Psalm 27:4 – one thing he asked was that he may dwell in the house of the LORD, all the days of his life, to behold and meditate (focus) on the Lord. This is about God’s presence. David wrote that in God’s presence there is fullness of joy, a by-product of being intimate with God (Psalm 16:11)! Despite our feelings of weariness, Jesus said that we can come to Him and He will give us REST (Matthew 11:28). Worship recalibrates us!

Psalm 73:17 marked the change in Asaph’s perspective – he now sees the end of evil people. He sees the reality of life: wicked people will one day be destroyed (vv. 18-22). He also saw his own sinfulness and had seen how senseless and ignorant he was. People who are intimate with God do not waste time judging others. In God’s presence, we have the fountain of life, and we see His light (Psalm 36:9). We need for God to open our eyes to see how God operates in the past, present, and future!

There’s a beautiful story of Elisha and his servant: when they saw that they were surrounded by many chariots of their enemies, Elisha prayed that God would open his servant’s eyes – and the servant saw that God’s chariots of fire around them were more than their enemies (2 Kings 6:15-27)!

When we worship God, our perspective will change, and it will impact our thoughts, emotions, and actions. Asaph was able to understand the great benefit, that God’s presence, assured security and guidance, and he had an ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE (vv. 23-24). It is only when we discover God’s infinite value that we realize that our greatest blessing is God Himself! May we be like the apostle Paul who said that to live is Christ, and to die is gain (Philippians 1:21)! Asaph’s psalm concludes that all the wicked will perish (v. 27). Paul’s perspective is beautiful –the big picture shows that God is Judge of both living and the dead (2 Timothy 4:1). Asaph ends with a powerful conclusion –that the “nearness of God” is his good, and since God is his refuge, he yearned to “tell of all Your works” (v. 28). When life does not make sense, we worship God and tell others about God’s faithfulness in the works He has done in the past, what He is doing now, and what He will do in the future – THE BEST IS YET TO COME!

Pray for the Lord to raise up multitudes of new worshippers who will worship Him in Spirit and truth.

Practice R.E.A.L worship every day.

Share about God’s goodness in your life and tell others about Jesus!

• Worship God for who He is, what He has done, and what He will do in our lives.

• Upright and moral governance of public servants; repentance and salvation for government leaders and citizens for a Christ-centered Philippines.

• For legislators to promote and support bills and laws aligned with God’s Word.

• War in Ukraine to end, loss of lives prevented.

• For the rest of the Israeli hostages to be restored to their families safely. For Israel’s war with terrorists to end according to God’s purpose and for His glory.

• For the civil war in Syria to end peacefully, protection for Christians and other minorities; that there will be freedom from oppression for Syrians. Pray for the gospel to spread rapidly throughout the country.

• Pray for Nigeria and persecuted Christians there; earnestly seek God’s intervention to stop the bloodshed. Pray for freedom from oppression, that God’s word and His people bring them comfort and hope.

• That CCF Members would honor and love God and make disciples.

• Elders, pastors, dleaders, and families (holy, humble, harmonious, happy, heart-working).

• Ministries and churches expand worldwide.

• Worship and Training Center

• Prayer Mountain

• Deeper intimate relationship with God.

• Righteous living.

• Salvation of family and friends.

25 Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth. 26 My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.