Day Eight " Planned for God's Purpose"

So of course it's after midnight when I am finally getting to sitting down and writing this but I haven't gone to sleep yet, so I guess it still counts as day eight. I was excited to get to sleep in today and awoke to a beautiful sunny morning. I have been thinking a lot about how God wants us to use the gifts he gave us. Running is something that I have been doing for a long time, it's something that I think I do rather selfishly because it makes me feel good, give me some alone time, and overall I think helps me and my life in general. I've also ran a few marathons and today made a calculated decision to turn my passion into action. I decided to use my next race as a way to raise money to support childhood tumor research. Since I was going to run anyway, why not use my skills to raise money for those who can't run...this is the right direction right? While I'm still searching for my overall purpose, why not use my skills to do good.

Key Points:
You were planned for God's pleasure
You exist for his benefit, his glory, his purpose, and his delight
You are a child of God and you bring pleasure to God like nothing else he has ever created.
God has emotions too and bringing pleasure to God is called worship
Worship is not for your benefit
Every activity can be transformed into an act of worship when you do it for the praise glory and pleasure of god
Do everything as if you were doing it for Jesus
For the lord and not for men
Real worship is all about falling in love with Jesus
Work becomes worship when you dedicate it to God and perform it with an awareness of his presence

Verse: " The Lord takes pleasure in his people." Psalm 149:4a

I'm not sure that I ever realized that worship was not for my benefit...it's not about me...life changing isn't it? So the purpose of worship is to bring pleasure to God..it kinda changes the way we look at praise. I also never really looked at everything I did as an act of worship...I really only thought about church or prayer or mission work...but not everyday activities like sleeping eating or school. So my purpose is worship God in all I do...
Falling in love with Jesus is a whole new experience for me. I had the opportunity to go to a Wesley meeting with Payton tonight and got to be in the presence of believers and of God. In a time of prayer and singing/dancing freely the words of this song that I remembered singing in youth group or maybe at camp came to mind.

Holiness (Holiness) is what I long for
Holiness (Holiness) is what I need
Holiness (Holiness) is what You want for me
Righteousness (Righteousness) is what I long for
Righteousness (Righteousness) is what I need (That's what I need)
Righteousness (Righteousness) is what You want for me
Take my Heart and mold it
Take my mind, transform it
Take my will, comform it
To Yours (to Yours) oh, Lord
Broken ness (Broken ness) is what I long for
Broken ness (Broken ness) is what I need (got to be broken)
Broken ness (Broken ness) is what You want for me (for me,)
Take my Heart and mold it
Take my mind, transform it
Take my will, comform it
To Yours (to Yours) oh, Lord

Yes...exactly...this is what I want to be molded, transformed, and conformed to the likes of the lord.