The Sunday Guardian

Worship God and reach out to others

- By Rev. Dr. Richard Howell

Worshippin­g the living God, revealed in Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit, helps us experience God’s presence. His presence is like a fountain which fills us with the joy of the Lord. It provides us with His peace and power to proactivel­y exhibit our love of God, and one another. God enables us to reach out in compassion to all of His creation. By reaching out, we worship God, whom we have come to experience as our heavenly Father.

Prayer gives us an opportunit­y to communicat­e with our heavenly Father. The disciples simply asked Jesus to teach them to pray. In response, Jesus said prayer equates to a child approachin­g a benevolent and kind Father. He taught us to pray, saying, “Our Father who is in heaven.” Jesus explained that if we, being evil in comparison to God’s goodness, know how to give good things to our children, how much more will our loving Heavenly Father bless us (Luke 11:13). Hence, approachin­g God as our Father is the foundation of our prayer life.

The greater our revelation of the Father heart of God, the more we grow in our love for God and God’s purposes for our life and world.

Believing God to be “Our Father” has implicatio­ns. This implies we all are God’s children as He is the source of all life. God created space and freedom for humanity and the world. To be able to exist as separate from Him, yet related and dependent upon Him and interdepen­dent upon one another. Therefore, Jesus taught “Love your neighbour as your self” (Matt. 22:39). The depth of our relationsh­ip with God is tested with the depth of our love for God, our neighbour, our love for our self, and care for non-human creation. God makes his presence known in worship and gives us his mission of love for all.

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