Waiting in My Wings

Quotes from the book:

God doesn't want a part of your life. He asks for all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. God is not interested in halfhearted commitment, partial obedience, and the leftovers of your money and time. He desires your full devotion, not little bits of your life.

Four Characteristics of Worship that pleases God:

God is pleased when our worship is accurate. People often say, "I like to think of God as ... ," (guilty of this) and then they share their idea of the kind of God they would like to worship. But we cannot just create our own comfortable or politically correct image of God and worship it. That is idolatry. To "worship in truth" means to worship God as He truly is, revealed in the Bible.
God is pleased when our worship is authentic. Made in God's image, you are a spirit that resides in a body, and God designed your spirit to communicate with Him,. Worship is your spirit, responding to God's spirit. It must be genuine and heartfelt. It is not just a matter of saying the right words, you must mean what you say. God gave you emotions so you could worship Him with deep feeling -- but those emotions must be genuine, not faked. He hates hypocrisy. He doesn't want showmanship or pretense or phoniness in worship. He wants an honest, real love. We can worship Him imperfectly, but we cannot worship Him insincerely. Of course, sincerity alone is not enough; you can be sincerely wrong. That's why both spirit and truth are required. It must be both accurate and authentic. The best style of worship is the one that most authentically represents your love for God, based on the background and personality He gave you. He made all of us differently, so He doesn't expect us to love Him the same way. There is no "one size fits all" approach. One thing is certain: You don't bring glory to Him by trying to be someone He never intended you to be. He wants you to be yourself.
God is pleased when our worship is thoughtful. Love God with all your mind. He is not pleased with thoughtless singing of hymns, perfunctory praying of cliches, or careless exclamations of "praise the Lord," because we can't think of anything else to say at the moment. If worship is mindless, it is meaningless. You must engage your mind. Also be specific. If someone approached you and repeated. "I praise you!" ten times, you would probably think, For what? You would rather receive two specific compliments than twenty vague generalities. So would God.
God is pleased when our worship is practical. Offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God -- this is your spiritual act of worship. Why does He want your body? Why not your spirit? Because without your body, you cannot do anything on this planet. You have heard people say, "I can't make it tonight, but i'll be with you in spirit." That means NOTHING. Its worthless! As long as you are on earth, your spirit can only be where your body is. If you're body isn't there, neither are you. So we are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices. Now, we usually associate sacrifice with something dead, but God wants you to be a living sacrifice. He wants you to live for Him!

Question to Consider:

Which is more pleasing to God right now -- my public worship or my private worship? What will I do about this?

"I'll bring you more than a song,

because the song itself is not what You've required.

You search much deeper within

than the way things appear.

You're looking into my heart.."