Sunday, January 4, 2015

What is this thing we call worship?

Someone told me today that church was good today because they "really enjoyed worship."  That phrase got me thinking.  What is worship really about?

I love singing.  I love praise and worship music.  I love going to church to sing those songs and listen to the sermon. But I love it because it makes ME feel something.  Warm and fuzzy.  Full of peace and love.  It makes me feel good about what I am doing on that Sunday morning.  But I am not sure that worship is really about how I feel and more about how He feels when I am worshiping Him.

If worship is about giving Him glory, singing His praises, showing Him honor, then why is how good "worship" was gaged on how good I feel in the process? There is so much more to worship than what my mind has conjured.  If what I am doing right now can bring God praise, then that is worship.  If when I go to work and people can His love through me, that is worship.  When I tell my son everyone is bad with out Jesus and we get to talk about how much Jesus loves us, then we are worshiping.  I can go on a walk and marvel at His creation, I can choose to read His word when I have other things I would rather be doing.  I do not have to be in a church building to worship my Creator.  He is, after all, everywhere, so my worship is not confined to a single location.

But even after deciding that my worship can happen anywhere there is still an idea about it that I need to dispel.  If I am solely worshiping because of the way I feel when I am done, or if that is my driving force, then no matter where I am or what I am doing, it is not worship.   I can sing all the songs in the world, but if my heart is not focused on Him then it is all for naught.  If I go to work and take great care of my pts but my heart is not focused on showing His love to them, I have wasted my time.  Worship has never and will never be about me.  It is about Him and Him alone.

But the amazing thing about God is that He can take my feeble attempt at worship and make it great.  I can be at work and the last thought on my mind be Jesus and someone will ask me when I became a believer because of something I said and did not even notice.  I can be beyond frustrated with this child of mine but he does this little smile and in the blink of an eye my heart is filled with such joy that I forget why I was mad in the first place.  I feel like if you truly do love Christ, despite the distractions that come with this world, your heart will always find a way to worship Him.  And He does not leave you wanting.  When you meet Him in true worship all those feelings of love and joy and peace are so abounding that you do not want to do anything but.  He can take the littlest part of me that is worshipping and expound it so that He will be given glory.  My  worship may not be perfect, but His desire to have me close and to love me is.  Which is why, worship though not always done for the right reasons will always bring me closer to Him.  And, the closer I become to Him, the more I find worship to not just be in a single location on Sunday mornings.

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