Christmas Devotional 14: Pouring Yourself out to God

Matthew 2:9-11; 1 Chronicles 16:11

In the struggle of cancer, it’s easy to see that prayer is a precious, unending gift from God. Cancer can drive us to seek God out for wisdom, strength and perhaps most often, peace. Nothing can produce awe like the sweetness of God’s peace touching you even through a bad cancer day.

Yet, cancer has a way of making some days not just bad days but rotten, terrible, horrible days. This could be due to discouraging medical news, uncontrolled side effects or perhaps it’s a day where the darkness seem to grow larger and larger with every thought. On days such as these it can be difficult to pray, difficult to sense the presence of God and difficult to find peace. God has given you another gift to draw you closer to Him so you may be bathed in His greatness. What if in the middle of the cancer, you could experience that unfathomable awe of God? The wise men found this gift when they stepped into the Christ Child’s presence.

Read the verses below:

9 After they had heard the king (Herod), they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Matthew 2:9-11

What two things did the wise men do when they saw the child? vs 11

1. _______________________________________________________________

2. _______________________________________________________________

After perhaps years of studying scrolls and months of traveling across the desert, the wise men finally laid eyes on the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. What did they do? They worshiped Him.

Let’s stop of a minute and think about how worship is different than prayer. To me, prayer is about communing with God. In prayer, I bring myself to the Lord: all my worries, all my joys, all my weaknesses and all my strengths. In prayer, I humbly strive to connect my life and my world to His view and His will. To me, worship is about pouring myself out to see only God. Pouring out all of me to acknowledge all that God is. Truly seeing the magnificence of God requires getting any concern for yourself out of the way.

Many years ago, in a moms’ school prayer group, I learned to reach out to God by focusing on saying to God, “You are…” There is something about stopping and remembering even one portion of God’s magnificence that places me truly into a place of worship. The more aspects of God’s magnificence that you delve into, the less you are focused on you. It’s in that place of telling God what you know to be true about Him, that you can come closer to knowing the awe that God inspires in you.

Complete the list below with words that you know describe God. Words like loving, patient, powerful, etc.

1. You are _______________________________________________________.

2. You are _______________________________________________________.

3. You are _______________________________________________________.

4. You are _______________________________________________________.

5. You are _______________________________________________________.

Take a moment to tell God in prayer the things you have listed above as what you know to be true about Him.

Let’s jump back to those wise men. What do we know about how they worshiped Jesus?

In the Greek, the words “bow down and worship” actually translate into worshiping in a prostrate position. This means lying down on the ground, face to the floor. (If you have done this, you would know it as “sucking up carpet fibers.”) When you picture a nativity scene, the wise men figurines are usually pretty majestic with their crowns and gifts. Maybe one of them is down on one knee. But the scriptures are saying that when they actually did see Him, they were so struck by the wonder of the Christ child that they were face down on the ground.

Maybe you’re thinking, “I worship God all the time, but I never thought about lying on the floor.” What would get these guys to do that?

Let’s explore this gift of worship a little more deeply. Check out these two translations of the same verse:

Go to the LORD for help, and worship him continually. 1 Chronicles 16:11 (GNT)

Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always. 1 Chronicles 16:11 (NIV)

Which translation do you connect with the most? Why? (no correct answer)

You can see by comparing the two translations that worship can also be translated as seeking His face. I love that. Seeking His face. If there were ever men who undeniably were seeking the King of Kings, it’s the wise men. And when they arrived and were truly seeing the face of God, they bowed down, prostrated themselves, and worshiped.

As we spend our lives, whether through the joys of life or the struggles such as cancer, let us remember to worship God. Each day, let us seek the face of God until we are so filled with awe that we empty ourselves, bow down and fill ourselves only with Him.

Complete the prayer below and then read aloud.

Heavenly Father, Teach me how to worship in my daily life. This Christmas Season lead me to focus on the gift of your Son and the wonder that you are __________________________________, ___________________________________, __________________________________. Show me the endless blessings that have come into my life from this one priceless gift. In your Son Jesus name I pray. AMEN