The Heart of Worship

If I were to ask you, "What is Worship?" how would you respond? To bow down before a deity? A God? To prostrate yourself before an image of something purporting to be divine? To sing songs of adoration to a heavenly being?

The most common mistake Christians make in worship today is seeking an experience rather than seeking God. They look for a feeling, and if it happens, they conclude that they have worshiped. Wrong! In fact, God often removes our feelings so we won't depend on them. Seeking a feeling, even the feeling of closeness to Christ, is not worship.

Then, to many believers "worship" is something you do to the sound of music when you're in church. In fact it's even given its own category. It's often accepted that "Worship" is the soft, slow, intimate kind of music that causes one to close their eyes, lift their hands and enter into a kind of heavenly euphoria, while "Praise" music is the upbeat, boppy, clap your hands, stomp your feet kind of stuff. Well that's not quite right.

Matt Redman, a worship leader in England, tells how his pastor taught his church the real meaning of worship. To show that worship is more than music, he banned all singing in their services for a period of time while they learned to worship in other ways. By the end of that time. Matt had written the classic song "Heart of Worship": The lyrics go like this . . .

I'll bring You more than a song, for a song in itself

Is not what You have required.

You search much deeper within than the way things appear.

You're looking into my heart.

When it comes to Worship, The heart of the matter is a matter of the heart.

Beyond the music, the truth is we worship God with our lives - each moment, and the most precious offering of worship is sacrificed to Him on the altar of suffering. We are to offer ourselves up as living sacrifices the Good Book says "Praise" is to be offered up as a sacrifice. Sacrifice implies suffering. If it doesn't hurt you to give friend, you haven't truly given!

The deepest level of worship is praising God in spite of pain, thanking God during a trial, trusting him when tempted, surrendering while suffering, and loving him when he seems distant".

Philip Yancey once said, "Any relationship involves times of closeness and times of distance, and in a relationship with God, no matter how intimate, the pendulum will swing from one side to the other". That's when worship gets difficult, but then that's when worship comes from the heart not the lips.

Matthew 15:8, "they draw near to me with their MOUTHS and honour me with their LIPS but their hearts are far from me".

The Father is not interested in lip service. Are you ready to worship Him from you heart today? Do you trust Him enough to praise Him, to worship Him despite your present, temporary pain? If you can worship Him in the midst of pain, you have worshiped Him indeed!

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