Growing as a Private Worshiper
How can we improve worship at our church? That's a loaded question if there ever was one! Truthfully though, the best answer is not a new keyboard, new sound system, or new worship leader! The truth is if we want worship to be all it can be on Sunday mornings, then we need to grow in our personal worship of God on the other days of the week! D.A. Carson writes: "In the same way that, according to Jesus, you cannot find yourself until you lose yourself, so also you cannot find excellent corporate worship until you stop trying to find excellent corporate worship and pursue God Himself. Despite the protestations, one sometimes wonders if we are beginning to worship worship rather than worship God. As a brother put it to me, it's a bit like those who begin by admiring the sunset and soon begin to admire themselves admiring the sunset."
We are put here on this earth to worship God and bring Him glory. Truthfully it's just practice for heaven, where we will...you guessed, worship God and bring Him glory forever and ever! If you aren't into that, I'm afraid heaven going to be a major letdown, because I have news for you, heaven isn't about you! Heaven is about God, and so is earth.
The book of Psalms is like a worship journal written by David (mostly anyway). Each page is dripping with passionate worship that extends far beyond the walls of the synagogue and reaches into every area of his life and touches on every emotion a person can have. The Psalms are both intensely personal and deeply passionate. May we be known as intense, passionate, devoted worshipers of God.
This is the part where you may think I am going to say that this will look different in each of your lives. You may think I should say something like, 'worship God the way you feel most comfortable, do what feels natural.' But I am not going to say that. The Ark of the Covenant was a central part of worship in the Old Testament because it represented the very presence of God. When David was bringing it back to the temple (because it had been captured) they had it on a cart and the cart hit a bump in the road and the Ark started to fall off! Uzaah reached out his hand to steady the Ark and God immediately struck him dead! Seems a little harsh right? Maybe, unless you know that God had prescribed that the Ark be transported using polls slid through the rungs on the side of the Ark and carried by four priests. NO ONE was to touch the Ark, and no one would have had to touch the Ark had they followed God's instructions in the first place.
Eventually David figured out why this happened and brought the Ark back to Jerusalem the way it was supposed to be. Like David, "we too need to scour the Bible to learn how God wants to be worshiped. For it doesn't matter how you and I want to praise God. It's not ultimately important whether worship makes us feel good or if the music is to our liking. True worship must always be offered on God's terms, not ours. So we need to learn how God wants to be worshiped." I know that isn't a popular thing to say, but at the end of the day, it's not about us or what we like, it's about God and what He likes.
"Christians can be stubborn as mules, set in their ways, especially when it comes to worship. Let's you and I respond differently by laying aside long-held notions and searching the Scriptures to learn all we can about how God desires to be worshiped." Then we can grow as private worshipers, and then we can grow as corporate worshipers as well.
Enjoy the Journey
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