"This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice AND be glad in it."
Psalm 118:24
What is that you are looking for God to do in your life today? What is it that you desire to know and experience as you gather with brothers and sisters in Christ? Let's all be honest with ourselves. Too often we are content to simply go through the motions of another religious ritual and say that we have been in the house of God. We are really not looking for God to do something great. If there is an emotional experience during the day, that would be fine. However, we are not normally looking to experience the stirring of the Holy Spirit.
When I began to think on this little word "AND", I realized that there were many times that God offered us an AND. In other words, He wanted us to experience more than we were looking for. In John 10 Jesus said, "I have come that they may have life, AND that they may have it more abundantly." If God is not satisfied to give you just a portion, why should we be satisfied with the minimum of what God can do? One of the reasons that the church in America is so lukewarm is that we are not expecting anything from God. I would challenge you to go to any place in the world where God is moving in a miraculous way (China, Haiti, etc.) and you will find the Christians there expecting God to do miraculous things in their presence. They have decided they are going to be AND Christians. They are not going to be satisfied with the status quo. They will spend countless hours in prayer. They meet together openly or in secret as their situation allows studying the Word of God. They are not ashamed to praise God and tell of His wonderful works. When I was in Haiti in 2003, the first night we had service beginning at 7PM. They sang praises to God for quite a while. They also publicly prayed together for an extended period of time. Two different pastors spoke. The service ended around 10PM. We heard the next day that there were some complaints about the service. They didn't think it was long enough. They wanted to start the next day at 5PM. Also understand that prayer and praise meeting started each morning at 6AM and lasted for over an hour. There was an expectancy for God to do great things. Let us not be satisfied with the mediocre or the status quo. Let's praise God for what He has done AND expect even greater things.There is one passage of Scripture that I think is perfectly fitting with this study of the word AND. The passage does not contain the word AND, but it does show how God wants to do more than we are really expecting. Paul said in Ephesians 3:20, "Not to Him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think."
May we live with desire to see God do great things today AND more.
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