No, I'm not going to start quoting the lyrics of the song... But I was struck again this morning at church what it means to worship. It's not about the music, the melody, the instrumentation, or how good (or bad) your voice is... Worship is about where your heart is at with God. Are you singing the songs to praise Him, or to hear your voice above the person who's standing beside you? Are you proclaiming the lyrics over your own life, or singing aimlessly while your mind wanders elsewhere?
I am definitely guilty of those things! Don't get me wrong here... I'm by no means saying that I am in a constant state of perfect worship where I am fully engaged and connected with God. Distractions happen to everyone. What I'm trying to get at here, is that our GOAL in worship shouldn't be OURSELVES! Worship is about God. About glorifying, praising, and exalting His Name higher than any other name.
I will leave you with this short blog and something I said this morning at church while I lead worship: Don't sit back and wait for some magical moment in worship to happen in order for you to engage and pursue God. He is already pursuing you -- He's already at work. So meet Him there. Just fall face-first into His presence.
Sometimes I wonder, though, if our conception of worship benefits when we set up a purity system relating to "true," "perfect," or "authentic" worship. Is this something that can be achieved? Do we end up feeling guilty most of the time? Perhaps worship is something that occurs in the midst of distraction and selfishness, not in the absence of those features. Something to think about; and, I think it jives with your comment "don't sit back and wait for some magical moment..."
ReplyDelete-Greg
That's a good point, Greg. Although I still believe that God calls us out of our distraction and selfish ambition in that moment, bringing us to a place of authentic worship. Of course as imperfect human beings we cannot achieve "perfect worship." That just wouldn't make sense. We can, however, strive to get to a place of authentic worship when we put Him before everything else -- including the thoughts that are going on in our minds and distracting us!
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