Grow In Worship

As the worship leader changed the song to 'Way Maker' by Sinach, the whole congregation was set on fire. People sang so passionately and tears were even coming out of their eyes. The whole atmosphere was highly charged but one can't really say they actually worshiped. People were crying because of their problems. They were passionately singing for the 'Way Maker' to come and open their closed doors. Yes, the people were just crying to the 'Miracle worker' for their long-awaited miracle. This is better than nothing, but it still falls short of the kind of worship the Master desires of us.

Worship is supposed not to be about you or your problem. It is supposed to be about the Lord and his goodness. It is supposed to be a time of deep reflection on the goodness, the love, and the grace of God. Such a deep sense of gratitude can lead one to tears that are simply a product of focused reflection on the majesty and goodness of the Lord. It is not about the popularity or acceptance of a song, it is about what the song is saying and your leverage on it to reflect on the love of the father.

Sometimes, people's emotion is poured out in prayer when the prayer is about forgiveness or is dealing with one satanic work or the other. But it should not be limited to these. Worship must involve our totality including our whole emotions. Jesus lamented about some religious folks quoting Isaiah: 'These people draw near to Me with their mouth and honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. ' (Matthew 15:8-9). They worship with their lips but their heart is not into it. They sing with their lips, but the innermost part of their heart and emotion is not involved. Jesus called them hypocrites, but many of us do the same thing out of ignorance. Grow in worship, and learn to pour your heart in gratitude to the father.

A few years ago, I learned to not thank God 'for everything he has done.'. I made up my mind to task myself to reflect and mention those things I'm thanking the Lord for. Mental laziness is the common cause of generic prayers. Meditation is one of the practices that the bible encourages us to perform daily and one of the highly rewarding ways to meditate is to reflect on the goodness of the Lord. A lazy mind can hardly mediate. It will rather repeat some pre-crammed statements in the name of prayer or meditation. Grow in your meditation.

You will never enjoy fellowship with the father as you should if all your prayers are about 'give me' and 'forgive me'. Learn to spend time just worshiping the master. Learn to make time to fast, not because you want something but because you want to fellowship with the Lord and deeply reflect on his goodness in your life, in your church, and for humanity. Each time I listen to the hymn, 'How Great Thou Art, I'm always amazed by the words penned down by the hymn writer. I always wonder the kind of spiritual state the writer must have been in to bring out such endless words of worship. The same way I feel each time I reflect on the Psalms of Thanksgiving written by David. I do feel that worship is the reason he was a man after God's heart.

God is calling us to go beyond singing to worshiping. To go beyond thinking about what the Lord could do, to deeply appreciating him for who He is and what He has done. We are called to bring more than a song. Matt Redman's ageless song, 'Heart of Worship' reads in part: 'I'll bring You more than a song, for a song in itself is not what You have required. You search much deeper within Through the way things appear. You're looking into my heart..'

Maybe you should meditate today on the hymn 'How Great Thou Art'. Every line, every stanza is simply glorious.