Worship Wednesday: Yearn and Burn

I can't get over it, I can't get around it and I can't get past it...what we need in our lives (mine included) is a true passion and desire for God. I have been writing about it for a week now, and I just can't help it. My heart is burdened so strongly on this subject.

Today, I was thinking about those who go out so passionately and declare the message, "Turn or burn!" I don't care for the tactics of those type of ministers, and I don't believe that it is an effective way to share the gospel, which is supposed to be good news! However, I do understand the need for a call to repentance and I do, to some degree, admire their passion. I think that many times it is a misplaced passion. The passion should be for God's love and mercy towards us. I have a new message for believers and unbelievers alike, instead of "turn or burn"...

                                                    Yearn and Burn...

We need to, above all else, desire the Lord and yearn for Him. Yearn for His presence and His guidance and for His will to be done in our lives. And then, we need to burn with a passion for our Lord that is visible to others! We need to worship Him and serve Him with a holy fire of passion that cannot be quenched!! No more singing about Him half-heartedly; no more falling asleep when His Word is being read and expounded upon; no more going to church for social hour; no more boasting in self-righteousness!!                                

We are not exempt from the kind of passionate love and commitment that God required from people in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Somehow, many of us think that the people of the Bible were holier than us and that we can't be expected to live with the kind of devotion that they did. Well, that is completely wrong. We are expected to live with the same passion and devotion for God as Noah, Moses, David, Mary, John, Paul, and many others!

Look at David's one desire:

One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.

 For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble;he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will lift me high upon a rock.

And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me,and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing and make melody to the Lord.

Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud;be gracious to me and answer me!

You have said, “Seek my face.” My heart says to you, “Your face, Lord, do I seek.”

                                                                                Psalm 27: 4-8 (ESV)

Now look at how the Amplified Bible says it:

One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek, inquire for, and [insistently] require: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord [in His presence] all the days of my life, to behold and gaze upon the beauty [the sweet attractiveness and the delightful loveliness] of the Lord and to meditate, consider, and inquire in His temple.

For in the day of trouble He will hide me in His shelter; in the secret place of His tent will He hide me; He will set me high upon a rock.

And now shall my head be lifted up above my enemies round about me; in His tent I will offer sacrifices and shouting of joy; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord.

Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud; have mercy and be gracious to me and answer me!

You have said, Seek My face [inquire for and require My presence as your vital need]. My heart says to You, Your face (Your presence), Lord, will I seek, inquire for, and require [of necessity and on the authority of Your Word].

                                                                                        Psalm 27: 4-8 (AMP)

Do you yearn for the Lord like that!! Do you think of His presences as a vital need...as a requirement for life!! We need to be like David, who was a man after God's own heart.

Rich Stevenson, in his book Secrets of the Spiritual Life, says this in regards to Psalm 27:4 :

Those who are like David have one consuming passion: to be with the Father, to never leave him. They have already begun their eternity. They have entered into the real essence of heaven's best - being in the presence of our Father. And they have found the pursuit of him to be inexhaustible. The closer you get to the Father, the more intense your longing to be with him becomes!

I don't know about you, but I know that I need God's presence. I yearn for it more and more each day.

As, I was praying today and beginning to enter into a personal time of worship, this song by Shane & Shane came to my mind and I began to sing it to the Lord. I challenge you to sing it from your heart as a prayer to the Father today...

Yearn

By Shane & Shane

Lyrics to Yearn :

Holy design

This place in time

That I might seek and find my God

my God

Lord I want to yearn for You

I want to burn with passion

Over You and only You

Lord I want to yearn

Your joy is mine

Yet why am I fine

With all my singing and bringing grain

In light of Him

Oh You give life and breath

Through Him You give all things

In Him we live and move

that's why I sing

(Acts 17:25-28, Hebrews 12:28-29)