YWAM Maui Week 10

Happy belated Thanksgiving! I hope everyone had a wonderful time with their families and friends! This week at YWAM Maui was filled with food, friends, fun, and a week on worship! This week we were blessed to have Trevor and Maria Hilman, a family who works with YWAM Maui, come to speak to us about worship!

This weeks update will be short because, as Trevor and Maria explained, worship is better caught than taught. I'll just leave you with a few highlights!




why??

God is worthy of our worship! He is not man that such command would be egotistical. He is the highest being, the uncreated creator of the universe. Infinitely good and Holy and loving, the superlative of any good thing you can think of! He is the only one worthy of our worship!

and....

it's good for us! God works all things for our good and His glory! When we worship it corrects our perspective! We get to see how
we are, and thereby our worries and problems shrink in light of the one who is able and has promised to care for us.

and the two go hand in hand!


True delight is incomplete until it is expressed. Isn't that the reason we sigh or say awww when we see something beautiful? Imagine if your favorite football team won the Superbowl, and at that game winning touch down you simply sat in silence and stared at the TV? That would be ridiculous, because true delight is EXPRESSED. When we see God, worship naturally overflows from our hearts.




Truth: the most important thing about us is what comes to our minds when we think about God. We need to worship out of the Truth of who He is. We can't simply say the right words, we need Truth behind them, knowledge of His faithfulness when we call Him faithful, belief in His goodness when we call Him good...

Spirit: worship isn't all about emotions, but it does include them. Our spirits need to be engaged when we worship, which often comes with an emotional response. So with that there are four stages...

By this we can see that God is glorified not through our amazing musical talents or show of emotion, but through whether or not we value Him, and where we choose to direct our worship. To help in times of worship, remind yourself of God's hand in and over your life, times you felt Him or saw Him working- this can help stir your heart up into a worshipful response.




There are so many ways to worship! You can sing in worship, dance in worship, paint in worship, write in worship, and the list goes on and on. Any expression of love coming from your heart is a worshipful response! However, if you never sing, there may be something wrong. Although singing isn't the only way to worship, it is a huge and powerful way shown in scripture again and again. We should never miss out on a time to sing and make a joyful noise to the Lord, but it doesn't have to be our only means of worship.

We also got a chance to watch the Louie Giglio video Indescribable and it was simply amazing. If you haven't seen it I would really encourage you to watch it at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNgJhuICrVA

Who would not want to worship that God?

We only had lecture Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday this week, and then we had our Thanksgiving celebration Wednesday night! It was such a fun time of eating, enjoying one another's company, and worshiping the Lord! Then Thursday and Friday we had our first and only break of lecture phase! We got the long weekend all to ourselves, which was such a needed time of rest.

Thanksgiving day was an interesting one! This was my first Thanksgiving not at home, and as I spent time with the Lord that morning I was reflecting on the direction my life has taken. Although I have always loved the Lord, I never imagined that I would end up in missions, or that I would ever get to know Him in the way that I do now and continue to grow in. As soon as I realized that the Holy Spirit was living and active two summers ago, everything changed for me. I began to see Him for who He was. I was overwhelmed each day of that summer with His immense love for me, and the natural overflow of my heart was to lay my life down for Him. I gave Him everything that summer and committed to a life of going wherever He led me- and I haven't regretted a day ever since. However, those choices come with real results. Some are obvious results, visible to anyone watching: I left San Diego state and moved to Maui. I gave up my apartment and my degree and am sitting in a living room turned lecture hall instead. But some are not as noticeable. Some are feelings in my heart, feelings as I talk to friends at school and realize that they are moving closer and closer to careers and I am not. Feelings that rise up as I see people I've grown up with begin to start their lives in the traditional sense of the word, and I realize I am no longer among them. Feelings as I move towards marriage and realize that my husband and I will be truly relying on the Lord for every kind of provision there is. Feelings that surface as I spend Thanksgiving day away from my family, and realize that this will not be a one time thing for me. I have given up the right to ever be home for the holidays. Feelings that come as I get ready for outreach, and know that the question isn't if I'll get sick but how much and how often. These are real results. But they are not the only ones. There are other results as well. There are the obvious ones, visible to anyone watching: how big my smile gets when I get to run and play with the kids who have nobody to love them. Results such as the friends I've made from all over the world that I never would have had I stayed in my little life at home. But there are more things, not as noticeable. There are feelings in my heart. There are feelings that come when I hear the Lord's voice whisper in my heart how proud He is of me. Feelings that overwhelm me when I get to tell someone about the God who made and love them, and watch them dare to believe it. Feelings that show up when I learn a new aspect of God's character, or experience a new facet of His unending love. Feelings that hit me as I move towards marriage andrealize the adventure of the life before us, and how amazing it is to watch ourGod provide everything we need time and time again. Feelings of joy when I read verses calling me to count everything I had as loss, and realize that I have done just that. Feelings that bring me to my knees when I imagine the day I will stand before the Lord, bloody, beaten, and exhausted from pouring out my life before Him, but more joyful and excited than anyone can imagine, with nothing that the world counts as important- no degree, no riches, no fame- only a heart full of love for my Lord, and I see His smile with my own eyes, and I hear from His lips "Well done my good and faithful servant, welcome home."

In some ways, this life I've chosen is hard. But when you see the One whom I chose it for, I think you'll agree, I've chosen the best life imaginable. I suppose that this little tangent I just went on keeps with the theme- the theme of worship. I have chosen, to the best of my ability, to worship my King with my entire life. And the principle holds true:
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