What do you do? a devotion by Keona J Tann

A common ice breaker question is for someone to ask: “what do you do?”. Now this can be an easy question to answer or it can be a tough and complex one. If we love what we do then it’s easy. However, if we’re struggling with what we do then the answer can feel like a complex one.
Now if I was to ask you “what do you do?” you’d probably pretty quickly respond with your current vocation, am I right? But what if we were created for more?

The big questions

Have you ever been kept awake at night by the big questions: Why am I here? What is this all about? Who am I? Where am I going in life? A.W. Tozer believes that all of these questions come down to one question: “What is my purpose in life?” And he doesn’t leave us hanging to find out the answer on our own for he explains, in great detail, that “God created man to worship Him.”¹
That is our purpose, our entire reason for our existence, to worship God because we were created to be God’s mirror image, to reflect God’s glory to all creation. But when sin entered it changed mankind and we could no longer reflect God’s image. We were created to look more like God than any other creature, but we became less like God than any creature.
How the mighty fell!² And what heights we fell from, once portraying the very image of God we scuttled around in the dark crawling and clawing for any scrap of love and pleasure we could find. But God longed for us. He saw us festering away in the darkness and knew that we needed redemption, He longed to restore us back to Himself. He “did not give up on us”³ rather He desired to be admired by us, for us to enjoy Him and to love Him forever. God longed for us and “out of this insatiable passion, God sent His only begotten Son, and He became incarnated in the form of a man; and when He walked the earth, He was the reflected glory of God.”
Jesus’s gracious act has indeed redeemed us back to God AND when we hide our lives in Christ’s we can grasp hold of our original purpose – to reflect God’s glory and worshipping is our primary service. In fact “worshipping God is our first call.”⁴

Worshiping God

Tozer understood this with a profound devotion, declaring: “I will worship Him; I am still worshiping Him; and I expect to worship Him for all eternity.” because that is what we are “here for, to glorify God and enjoy Him thoroughly and forever, telling the universe how great God is.”⁵

Someone else who understood this with an incredible amount of devotion was Brother Lawrence. Poverty forced him to become a soldier, whilst in service he was injured which left him crippled and in chronic pain for the rest of his life. But it was also in the army that he had a profound moment, as he gazed upon a barren tree he suddenly understood that leaves would soon reappear quickly followed by blossoms and eventually fruit. As he gazed upon this tree he suddenly had a profound understanding of God’s providence and power. That moment sparked within him a great love for God.⁶ After the abrupt end to his army life he spent some time in the wilderness before entering into the monastery. Although he held a very lowly position he was sought out by many for his explementary peace and wisdom. After his passing some of this advice was compiled into a book titled “The Practice Of The Presence Of God”. In this book he unpacks how to continually walk with God and not from the head but from the heart. He had a deep understanding that whatever he did was secondary to his worship of God. Even during his death (which is described as being painful) he was asked what he was doing and he replied “I’m just doing what I’ve been doing for 40 years and expect to be doing throughout eternity……. Worshipping God.”⁷

What do you do?

Tozer’s insight has helped us to discover our created purpose, and he reminds us that long after everything else has ceased to exist we will be worshipping God. I sense that Brother Lawrence and Tozer are asking us “what do you do?” and I pray that we respond, “worship God!”, that we become sincere worshipers who worship and adore God in spirit and in truth.

“God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4:24 (NKJV)

• In Spirit is to have the Holy Spirit guide and direct us in how to worship each moment of every day. To not simply go through the motions but have pure adoration flow from our hearts.
• In truth is to submit to God’s truth, which takes a deep knowledge and understanding of just Who He is; along with the embracing of our renewed image through Christ; and allowing a continual transformation to take place through the work of the Holy Spirit because we are called to go from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Prayer:

I pray that what I’ve shared has helped you to discover your created purpose, I invite you to join me in this prayer:
Lord Jesus I thank You for redeeming me from the pit of death. I thank You that I can now call myself a child of God and I ask for You to teach me how to truly worship. Holy Spirit come and teach me the truth of who I am, show me how I am to reflect God’s glory and help me to love and adore more the One who created me.
You are worthy, my Lord and God, to receive glory, honour, praise and power for You created all things, and by your plan they were created and exist.⁸
Oh how worthy You are, my Lord and God, to receive all the praise I can bring.
Let all that I am praise the Lord, for He has been so good to me.
Let all that I am adore the Lord, and never forget the good things He continually does for me.⁹
Let ALL that I do bring glory and honour to the Lord.
In Jesus’ precious name I pray. Amen.

Many blessings,

Keona

Notes:
1. pg 42 Tozer, A.W. (Aiden Wilson). The Essential Tozer Collection: The Pursuit of God, The Purpose of Man & The Crucified Life. Compiled and Edited by James L. Snyder. United States of America, Bethany House Publishers, 2013.
2. similar to: “How the mighty have fallen!” 2 Samuel 1:19b (AMP), “And now he has fallen so low!” Ophelia modern text from Act 3 Scene 1 of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, found via sparknotes.
3. pg 45 Tozer (see note #1)
4. pg 46 Tozer (see note #1)

5. pg 47 Tozer (see note #1)

6. pg 12 of “The Practice Of The Presence Of God” by Brother Lawrence found via academia.edu 
These also helped in learning more about Brother Lawrence’s life:
http://nicholasherman.blogspot.com/2006/05/brief-biography-of-brother-lawrence.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brother_Lawrence
7. pg 47 Tozer (see note #1)
8. Revelation 4:11 The Passion Translation paraphrased
9. Inspired by Psalm 103:2