Pouring Yourself Out to God, December 20
By Karen Tripp
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. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him (Matthew 2:9-11 NIV).
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. 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.
After perhaps years of studying scrolls and months of traveling across the desert, today’s verses tell us the wise men finally laid eyes on the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. What did they do then? They worshiped Him.
Let’s stop for 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.
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. The scriptures are saying that when the wise men actually saw Jesus, they were so struck by the wonder of the Christ child that they were face down on the ground.
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 with words that you know describe God, and then read it aloud.
Pray: Heavenly Father, teach me how to worship You 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—Jesus, my Savior. In His name I pray. Amen.
Your Turn: Join with Hillsong Worship as they sing “Here I Am to Worship”—"Here I am to worship, here I am to bow down, here I am to say that You're my God. You're altogether lovely, altogether worthy, altogether wonderful to me." Worship our awesome God, experience His magnificence, and be filled with His blessings through the gift of His Son, Jesus.
Karen Tripp, MS, LMFT, Cancer Caregiver
Karen is the Executive Director of Cancer Companions, the premiere national Christian cancer ministry (https://www.cancercompanion.org). Her roles have included authoring several Christian books including God is Bigger Than Your Cancer and working as a licensed marriage and family therapist. She is a daughter of a colon cancer survivor. Karen uses her experience to teach how to step into another person’s struggle to help build their faith while strengthening your own.
Cancer Companion’s vision for the future is for every person impacted by cancer to know the hope, love, and grace of Jesus and that every oncology team has included faith in their treatment toolbox. By 2033, Cancer Companions will provide 5 million engagements through cancer prayers, scriptures and interactions to those impacted by cancer. Engagements include; social media outreach, e-newsletters, prayer team requests, 30 days of Cancer Prayer event, and volunteer connections.
To learn more about our ministry and the services we provide visit our website by clicking here.
