“Honor the Lord for the glory of His name. Worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness.” (Psalm 29:2 NLT)
The sole purpose of worship is to give the Lord glory, honor and praise. The resultant “feelings” derived from our surrendered heart are personal, private and irrespective of the setting in which we find ourselves. Personal or corporate worship through prayer, fasting, singing, dancing, or however the Lord prompts us to come before Him is for Him, not for our recognition, right feelings, or edification. Whether by ourselves or in a crowded auditorium, our focus should always and only be on the Lord.
Music, preaching, and other components of modern worship must only be instruments in enabling us to see the Lord and hear His voice more clearly, not to hype us up into some emotional frenzy in order that we might feel like we’ve worshipped. Yes, of course, worship often has an emotional component. Sometimes I cry, but often a more appropriate response is contemplation, consideration of what the Lord is saying and how it applies to my personal life. The feeding of my soul comes through God’s Word as I read and study it for myself. Yes, of course, the Pastor’s messages give me insight and understanding, but I can’t expect the Spirit to always use another person to feed my soul.
Worship should open our hearts to the Lord, enabling our spirit to be sensitized to His Spirit that we might hear His voice and submit to His directives. Worship isn’t primarily for us, it’s for the Lord, but out of that experience should grow intimacy with the Lord which results in logical applications.
For example, worship should broaden our minds to grasp that though there is a vast difference between the Lord and us, His desire is that we should grow in our likeness of Him. Through worship the Lord communicates ways that can be accomplished. As we love Him in worship, our heart grows in love, thus broadening our capacity to love Him more and grow to become like the Lord more effectively.
As we express dependence upon Him in and through our worship, we learn to depend on Him more fully in the activities of our daily lives – in our home, at work, school, play, wherever we are, whatever the circumstances. Dependence on the Lord grows out of our recognition that apart from Him we can literally do nothing. The picture painted by the original term we use as “worship” means “worth-ship” and is illustrated by a dog licking its master’s hand.
Dogs are completely dependent upon their masters, just as we must be dependent upon our Savior. Does that mean we simply sit around and wait for the Lord to “feed” us? Quite to the contrary, it heightens our understanding that though we’re completely dependent, He has given us gifts and abilities designed by Him to make us useful in the carrying out of His eternal plans. That’s why it’s ludicrous to believe we go to worship to get something: i.e. to be fed, to get an emotional or spiritual “high” or in any other way be enriched by what we offer to the Lord other than the jubilation of our soul.
Micah Fries gives us insight when he writes: “If you judge your church’s worship based on how well you’ve been “fed” you have made yourself the object of your worship.” Worship isn’t about us! From start to finish it should only be centered and focused on the object of our worship, the Lord Jesus. There have been those who have used the excuse to leave a church that they weren’t “being fed”! That’s more often than not a reflection of the one leaving, not the ones being left.
Our spiritual nourishment must be derived from our personal and corporate worship of our Savior, not feelings derived from a special setting, listening to certain kinds of music or our favorite speakers “we” like, or reading only those portions of the Biblical texts that “speak to us”. Lord save us from selfishness and self-centeredness that rob us of the heart of what true worship of You is supposed to be.
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
