Did you know there is a right way and a wrong way to worship? Now, before anyone gets all up in arms over this, hear me out. This is not going to be a doctoral debate on whether we should have drums, raise our hands or sit in silence. I believe scripture supports all of those things. Today’s post is about the very core of worship.
Worship is not about us
God created humans to bring glory to His name, to worship Him and to honor Him. If our efforts of worship are rooted in getting something in return, then yes, we are doing worship wrong! If we approach worship with the attitude of “what can I get out of worship today?” then, we have missed the concept of worship entirety. Worship is not about getting. Worship is about giving. It is about the attitude of our hearts. “What can I give the Lord today?” That is the proper attitude of worship, and that is the right way to worship. Worship is and never was meant for our benefit. The beneficiary of our worship is solely the Lord.
Under this same umbrella comes the importance of worshiping the Lord in the manner of which we were designed. God created each of us very uniquely. Not one of us has the exact same likes and dislikes, talents and abilities. So, what makes us think that we're all going to worship the Lord in the exact same way? The truth is, we are not. Since worship is not about us. We should not be worrying about what the person beside us thinks. If God has wired you to dance, then dance. If God has wired you to sit in reverence, then sit. If God has wired you to be face down on the floor, then by all means, be face down on the floor! God will get more delight from the person who worships Him in the manner of which they were designed then from the person who just goes along with the crowd and does what the person beside them is doing just so they fit in. Fitting in is not worship.
Worship encompasses so much more
Worship is not going to church and singing songs. Yes, you read correctly. Worship is way more than songs. If worship solely centered around music, than those of us who are not musically inclined could never worship. Worship is not about going to church and listening to a sermon either. While music and messages are aspects that can lead our hearts to a place of worship, they are not worship in and of themselves. Please don’t misunderstand me here. I am not advocating that we stop going to church. In the contrary, attending our local body is a Biblical principle we should all practice! I am simply saying that if these things are our definition of worship than we are seeing God with an extremely narrow mind. We are putting God in the box of the four walls of church, of our music and of the messages. Worship is a lifestyle, it’s every little thing we do to bring glory to our Heavenly Father. Worship can happen at the grocery store just as easily as it can happen in our sanctuaries. Bringing glory to Christ is not confined to a place. Worship is more about the attitude of our hearts then it is about our location. We can worship no matter where we are located. We can bring glory and honor to the Lord at work, at school, at home, in the car, at the grocery store, and even while we lay on our beds at night. Worship should encompass every aspect of our lives and not just our Sunday morning church services.
Worship is emotional
I have recently been working my way through the book “The Purpose Driven Life” and I was floored when I came to the section of the book that talks about our worship being authentic. We must be willing to lay bare our most secret places and express to God how we really feel. God is not looking for some type of religious, going through the motions type of worship. He desires for our hearts to be open and honest, to be raw and real before Him. He wants us to be true to the beautiful intricacies of the way He wired our hearts to worship. I think sometimes we would rather play it safe behind the mask of religion then to tell and show God our true nature, our thoughts, feelings and emotions.
My upbringing taught me that my emotions were unpredictable and therefore are to have no part in my spiritual walk. While it was acceptable for me to show emotions during “praise and worship” at church, outside of this venue the emotional side should be cut off from my relationship with God. Now, I have always had a difficult time swallowing this pill of thinking. Why would the Lord go through all the trouble of making me an emotional being if I am only allowed to show them in isolated circumstances? If God did not want me to be emotional in my relationship with Him, than He probably wouldn’t have included the book of Psalms in the Bible. Psalms is a extremely emotional book. Wrapped up in its pages are recorded just about every emotion known to man. I always had a hard time understanding the book of Psalms. While there were some wonderful encouraging verses recorded within its chapters, it always seemed like it was entangled with the complaints of David to deliver him from his enemies and avenge him from his foes. After reading “The Purpose Driven Life” I came to view Psalms in an entire new light. Psalms is merely a worship manual for us as believers. And since it includes the broad spectrum of emotions, it is able to teach us about God’s expectations of our emotional side. It was included for in scripture for us to see just how blatantly open and honest our relationship needs to be with the Lord, so that we know that we can and should go to the extremes with the Lord and withhold nothing from Him. What a comforting thought! David did that with the Lord. David poured out his heart in such a way that it was crystal clear as to what was going on in his inner most being. There was no mistaking his heart. And David didn’t sugar coat anything either.
“I pour out before him my complaint; before him I tell my trouble.” Psalm 142:2
God doesn’t mind our complaining to Him, especially when we are being honest about where we are at. Our open and honest heart before the Lord is what God desires. The Lord would much rather hear us be honest than have our vague and empty prayers bounce off the walls of heaven. The vague and empty is the one thing that the Pharisees and Sadducees did well. And because of that, Christ continually chastised them for it. Their worship was not honest. It was a show. It was words that meant nothing. Is our moments of worship vague and empty or is it open and honest?
Call to action
How about you? Are you living a lifestyle of worship, where everything you do and say is bringing glory and honor to the name of Jesus? My challenge to you is to look at each activity to do throughout your day and ask yourself “How can I bring glory to Christ through what I am doing?” Maybe you need to change an attitude, maybe it’s something much more sever, like changing the activity. Whatever the case may be, do everything as an act of worship and see just how your life changes over the course of the next couple weeks.
Lord, I thank you that you have designed us to bring glory and honor to your name. You have designed us to be worshipers. I thank you that you have not designed us to be robots, but you have designed each of us uniquely. You have given us each a special way to worship you that will be different than the next person. Help us to learn exactly how we are wired so that we can worship you in the way you created us to worship you. Help us not to go through the motions of worship, or to neglect this beautiful act of worship, but to embrace the unique design. We love you Lord and desire to give you all the honor and glory and keep none of it for ourselves. In the precious name of Jesus Christ we pray.
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