God is Worthy of Our Affection and Devotion

The theme I’m going to write about today is that God is worthy of our affection and devotion. The subject reminds me a lot of an old Vineyard worship song by Andy Park. I was first introduced to the Vineyard catalogue of worship music in the mid-90s shortly after coming to faith. Andy Park was one of the more popular writers with hits such as “The River is Here” and “We Will Ride”. I remember passionately worshiping to these songs in church and at church events. I was zealous for the Lord and would shout out my praises earnestly and loudly. My worship was unreserved. The Andy Park song I think of when I think of this month’s theme is from my favourite worship album Unshakeable. The song is “Worthy of All My Love”. The chorus goes:

“For You are worthy, worthy worthy of all my love
You're worthy of all that I can give Yes, You are worthy, worthy worthy of all I have and I gladly give my life to You”

And this, in turn, reminds me of a favourite passage of scripture, Rev 4:11 which says: “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”

What resonates with me is the idea that God is much bigger than anything we can imagine. He is beyond our worldly ideas and constructs. He created all things and He has power over all things. Since He created all things, including the ability to love, how can we not love Him?

Since He created all things, He is bigger than the hurts and pains that this world hands us. The struggles we go through are painful and real. They are deeply impactful to us and God understands this. But what gives me hope is that God’s omnipotence and perfect love and mercy bridges the gap between our own limited understanding of our pain and God’s perfect plan for us. He holds the answers to everything in His hands and His plans for us are good.

He is all knowing and all perfect. Andy Park begins his song with:

“I stand in awe of You
For I have seen Your glory
I bow before Your throne of majesty
I stand amazed at You, so powerful and holy nothing can compare to You, my King.“

There is nothing that compares to God. He is Holy. No earthly king comes close. Even the 24 elders of Revelation lay down their crowns before the throne. This is why the four living creatures in Revelation cry out day and night “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty”. If God is worthy of that, He is worthy of all the affection and devotion I have to offer.

-By John Hanley