Renewing Worship

 

    Worship is a biproduct of your relationship with God.  He is steadfast, never changing or moving away from you.  It is us that get complacent or move away from God.  Sometimes we all need a little boost to get motivated and moving again.  We need to be spiritually energized and stop taking things in life for granted.  Sometimes we need a renewing of our mental, emotional, and spiritual status to be able to worship God properly.

    King Hezekiah of Judah was 25 when he became king.  He reigned 29 years, so he had a lot of ups and downs as the leader of a nation.  He was only 54 when he died, but he used his life for the good of his nation and to lead them all to a life of worship.

    Hezekiah began his reign by reopened God's temple and began repairs.  This was the beginning of a renewal the nation's worship.  His fervor encouraged the Levites who were supposed to be the spiritual leaders, but after so many years of oppression they had lost motivation.  He reminded them of what they needed to do and what their job.

    The Levites were happy to follow this king and obey God.  They began to renew their worship by consecrating and purifying themselves and then God's temple.  We all have to start with ourselves in a personal covenant to God before we move on to helping anyone else or cleansing anything.  It took them eight months to complete God's temple.  

    The day after God's temple was ready, they made a sacrifice to God.  Hezekiah started early with the purification ritual of the temple, then moved on to the other sacrifices.  It took all day, but it was a great time of worship.  The nation was spiritually energized and prioritizing their focuse back onto God.  The nation rejoiced in all that God had done for them.  God's temple was now established as a place of worship again.

    Today we don't need to do blood sacrifices.  There are all different types cleansing and sacrifices.  A good place to start in a simple fast and meditation on God's Word.  Focus on the scripture that God is leading you toward, not what other people direct you toward.  Then you can do a cleansing of yourself by what you eat, ridding your house of unneeded clutter, physical cleaning (like spring cleaning), or whatever the Spirit encourages.  It is all about removing the distractions where they may be.

2 Chronicles 29