“I cried out to Him with my mouth; His praise was on my tongue.” Psalm 66:17

Practicing Worship

My heart is continually filled with gratitude to the Lord for His goodness and mercy to me these past years on this unexpected journey. Some days when I worship and thank Him all I can do is weep in thanks for His faithfulness. How anyone can make it through trials and suffering without the Lord, I don’t know. I wouldn’t have lasted a day without Him!

Four years ago when I first discovered I had ovarian cancer, I had no idea what the outcome would be. Floyd and I had talks about the future. I told him what I wanted at a memorial service if I passed away. I made a list for him of the songs I wanted. At the top of my list was the song “I Can Only Imagine” by Mercy Me. I love that song because I personally can only imagine what it will be like to stand in God’s presence in heaven someday!

The story of how the song came about has been made into a movie. A number of my friends in the U.S. had told me how good the movie is, so as soon as it arrived in South Africa I wanted to go see it. As part of my directive from my two doctors to have “fun,” I planned a movie time.

There are some hard scenes in the movie because of the background of the man who wrote the song, but the overwhelming message is of redemption. I loved the movie. There were only a few of us in the theater. At the end I was so in awe of God’s goodness that I couldn’t help but raise my hands in worship. I don’t know if anyone noticed, but I didn’t care. I had to worship God for His faithfulness.  t was a precious experience of worshipping Him in the movie theater.

I look forward to the day when we stand in His presence. I don’t know if I’ll dance (I hope so because I’ve never been a dancer here)—or if I’ll sing or be silent in awe—or if I’ll stand or fall to my knees in worship. How awesome it will be to look into the eyes of our Redeemer.

I was thinking about all this the other day, and the thought struck me: I need to get ready! I need to practice my worship now. We truly can “only imagine” what it will be like to be in His presence someday, but we can worship Him with all our heart and mind now. I’m getting ready!

“Father, how wonderful it will be to worship You someday face-to-face. In the meantime, I’m practicing and getting ready…as I imagine what it will be like with You. You deserve our worship!”

Just a short update on Sally McClung’s surgery this morning from her assistant…

The surgery lasted about three hours. She has quite a lot of pain, so pray for relief from that. The nurses have been adjusting her meds to get the pain under control but it is up and down. The surgery was quite complicated because of the location of the tumor, but the surgeon is happy with the result. Pray that the tests on the samples will give the doctors useful information on treatment going forward, and pray for a speedy recovery.