Hungry?

Can one really be fed by God with pursed lips? The answer came to me today while driving in the car. At this moment, for the life of me, I cannot recall what I was listening to or even thinking, but I know that I scribbled down the following words at the first red light I came to…
“Only through an open mouth of praise will we be truly fed by God.”

Now, I have always heard and have known that God inhabits the praise of His people and that while He takes up “residence” there, there is an awesome exchange between the one worshipping and the One being worshipped. But I guess this was such a practical and visual example. When the mama bird returns to the nest with the life sustaining food for the baby birds, do they wait in the nest with beaks clinched tight, apathetic to the return of the mother? Absolutely not! With full abandon, and not a second thought as to what actually might be given them to eat, they turn face up, beaks wide open, and wait for mama to provide what they are so desperate for.

What if God saw us just like this; coming into His presence face turned upward, mouths open in praise and expectation. Something happens when we open our mouths and speak truths about our God and Savior. Something happens when we refuse to let silly things like familiarity, tradition, and comfort affect our response to God’s command to worship Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. When we let go of all the stuff that we cling to so desperately (all of our preconceived notions, our check-list of specifics) we open ourselves up to receive whatever God has in store for us in that encounter and in our lives.

Psalm 81:9-11 “You shall have no foreign god among you; you shall not bow down to an alien god. I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it. But my people would not listen to me; Israel would not submit to me.”

The people of Israel had this promise from God, and yet despite that promise, the Word of God tells us that they did not listen. They were told that they were to have no other gods before them. In other words, do not open your mouth and praise anything other than me. On the opposite end, I think verse 10 speaks specifically to the commandment to open our mouths in praise (not in judgment, condemnation, or criticality). For this reason, it is not acceptable to stand with pursed lips and crossed-arms and expect to reap the benefits of the God who is not receiving your praise.

When we don’t respond to the call of worship (which is being given 24 / 7 / 365), we are sending the message to God that other things and people are more important, more worthy of our time, energy, focus, and resources….which is our worship.

In this act of full-on worship, we humble ourselves before the God of the universe, placing Him in His rightful place and revealing before man, our dependence and hunger for Him. When we do this, he feeds us with His very Word, His very presence. He becomes the air we breathe and we are then aware of that benefit…the benefit of His Life poured out for our own. In Matthew 4:4 is says, “It is written: Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” I truly believe this only happens when our mouths, our lives, our hands, our all is lived in complete openness to God.

So today, I beg you, for your sake, for your family’s sake, for the sake of generations to come, open up your mouth and give Him praise with all that you have and all that you are and be fed from the abundance that is God’s to share.