For the hour now is …when the true worshippers shall worship the father in spirit and in truth
John 4: 23- 24, Isaiah 1: 10 – 16, Malachi 1: 8
The other day, I was in a church service with hands lifted up in worship, eyes shut and then I realised suddenly that my mind was everywhere but where it was meant to be – presence of God worshipping my creator, the work of whose hands I am. I immediately brought my mind under the control of the spirit.
As I took my seat after the worship, I pondered on our worship. I felt the pain of God when we gather in worship and sing beautiful songs lifting up seemingly ‘holy hands’ in worship even cry ‘in His presence’ yet our hearts are far away from Him and our worship neither in spirit nor in truth. The entire thing is either unreal or at best borne out of a temporary outburst of emotion. O! How those worship songs and the lovely voices of the choir make us feel very ‘spiritual’.
I went to scriptures again to find out if God was so desperate for worship that He would accept anything and found that He isn’t. Some of the scriptures I found are written above. Indeed, going from those scriptures, God feels insulted by unreal or feigned worship and rejects it.
We lift up well manicured hands in worship to Him but our hearts are not only far from Him but also very filthy. How insulting this must be to the God that sees the heart of man and before whom nothing is hidden. God seeks true worshippers – a people who sing in songs of worship the yearning of their hearts and their attitude to life. If He wanted just songs, I beg to suggest that the angels who most likely sing with much better voices than we do would be able to meet that need. Indeed, He said He could even raise stones to do it but instead He yearns for our love, honour and reverence. We should not sing to Him what we do not live in our everyday lives-that would be a lie. Our worship songs and our lives must be in sync. Both describing how much we love, reverence and honour Him. They must show that our total and absolute allegiance is to this God and we have no other.
The truth is you can not worship Him if you don’t know Him. Do you know Him? If yes, are you increasing in your knowledge of Him? The more you know Him, the deeper your worship and the more it pleases God. If you don’t know Him, you can meet Him to today. All you have to do is ask Him to come into your life. Do it now. Your entire life will change for good.
Your worship is only as good as your knowledge of Him. God seeks true worshippers.
To be honest, my first reaction to this was 'What! Pastor B's mind wanders too?!'. Thank you for being 'real'. I struggle with this sometimes and what I try to do is turn whatever my mind wanders to into a prayer point but its harder when you are meant to be worshipping God and you start thinking about 'school fees or some work you are meant to finish at work or whether someone is looking at your chipped nail polish'. How does that work? I trust God though, if we are honest with him, he will continue to help us in ALL things! God bless you Pastor B!
ReplyDeleteOh yes!Pastor B's mind really does wonder and guess what very often her nails are not even well manicured so.... It is a consistent struggle. I love the 'turning of thoughts to prayer' idea; Sounds interesting. However, i think, more often than not, we are either asking God to do one thng or the other so during worship, let us make it his own time. Pay Him all the attention we ever can. Make it our very special 'God time' when we express in words how we feel about Him.
ReplyDeleteJust as if i knew, when i talked to you earlier today about standing still.
ReplyDeleteI've been pondering over this issue these past weeks,I realised that my heart has to be uncompromisingly perfect towards God before i can worship Him as He requires or even access His benefits, for "who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in His holy place?he that hath clean hands and a PURE HEART.......".Everyday now, i ask that my heart be perfect towards Him, devoid of offence and the issues of life that may cloud my sight and take my gaze away from Him.
Thank you for the reminder.
Need to add that i loved the "God time" idea. I shall start doing that consciously now,when it won't be about me, but just God......hmmmm. It is so well.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very tough issue - WORSHIP and it challenges me a great deal. Sometimes I get scared because I am not sure if I really do it right. It is about ministering to the Lord, giving Him all. Worship is very rare because it takes a selfless heart to worship and so because I have needs, my prayer is mostly about petitions instead of worship. I believe that the apostles were able to display the raw power of God because they gave God their all; body, soul and spirit, for nothing in return. Yet they had needs. In short, they lived a life of worship. That is why He always spoke to them and gave them direction. I know I miss out on a lot when I do not worship for that is the time that God speaks. While he expects us to make petition for our needs, he desires that we minister to Him for in that His perfect will for our lives is made known. Holy Spirit please ooooo, help me. I have not even scratched the surface!
ReplyDeleteYesterday, in the midst of worship, I once again caught my mind wandering. THIS TIME instead of pretending like I think God cannot see that I was not focussed on him. I just told him what was going on and that I knew he could see it and that he should please help me stay my mind on him. That he should help me give him the worhhip he deserves. It worked! God is indeed a loving, helpful Father! We just need to be real with him I think and continue to ask for grace.
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