His Ambassador Blog

The Lord created us to glorify Him. We have the opportunity to do that through worship. When many of us think of worship we probably think of music and singing, which are great ways to worship. But it’s genuinely more than that. We should take a look at what worship isn’t as well as what worship is.

Worship isn’t about you.

I’ve heard so many people say, and I’ve been guilty of this myself, to say “I didn’t like worship today because they played…” or “I didn’t like all the different instruments, it should be simple,” or “Worship was really boring today.” It’s so easy to get caught up in how we feel about worship, whether it’s comfortable for us or not. But we need to take a step back and recognize that worship is not about us. Worship is about love and adoration for our Father. It’s about expressing our gratitude for everything that He does and recognizing the amazing God that He is. When we worship it’s so critical that we remove ourselves from the equation and give all of our focus and attention to our Father. Psalm 95:6 paints this picture, “O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.” Worship is about thinking less of us and humbly bowing before the feet of Jesus. Worship is giving all of the glory to Him.

Worship isn’t about others.

When we’re not busy thinking about how worship should serve us, we can often get distracted wondering what others think of our worship. When we’re in service and we want to raise our hands but we stop because we wonder if someone will judge the way we’re doing it. It’s easy to think about how people will question our worship and adoration to the Lord but it’s important that we remember that our worship is for God and Him alone. The very first of the ten commandments is, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Nobody else’s opinion of how we worship God should come before His. This also applies to those who don’t always feel the need to raise their hands in worship. Worship isn’t about how we’re portraying ourselves on the outside. The raising of hands is not required, it is as the Spirit leads. It is possible for someone to be the most expressive one in worship yet be the farthest from Jesus spiritually and the person who is simply singing may be right in God’s will, in harmony with Jesus. There is no correct way to worship and you might find it easy to compare how you worship with how others do but as long as you are glorifying the One true God, it is worshipping all the same.

Worship is a position of the heart.

In Matthew 15, Jesus recites a prophecy from Isaiah saying, “’This people honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me. And in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’” It is so easy to ‘worship’ God with the words we say, but do our hearts truly worship the Lord? Is that which flows from the inside out glorifying to Him or glorifying to ourselves or something of the world? The bible says that we will speak what our hearts are full of. To truly worship the Lord our heart must be in the right place with Him. What we cling to in our hearts will be proved through our actions. Therefore, if our hearts seek God and truly cling to Him, our actions with reflect that love of the Lord. Which in turn will be worship of God.

Worship must happen in Spirit and Truth.

John 4:24 says, “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” Our worship has to be connected with the Father. This ties into the previous point that worship is about the posture of our hearts. If we haven’t truly surrendered ourselves to the Lord and accepted Jesus as our Savior then we won’t understand the point of worship. We won’t allow worship to change us and to prick our hearts. Our heart and soul must be in our worship and only in worship of the true God, Yahweh. If it were worship of any other god it would not be worship in truth. We must come honestly and humble before God with all that is within us, like the psalmist says, “Praise the LORD, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.” (Psalm 103:1)

Worship with other believers is important, too.

I think it’s important for us to study the importance of corporate worship. The body of believers gathering together to worship the Lord is pleasing to the Lord. Hebrews 10:24-25 says, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” It is so important for believers to gather together, not only to encourage each other but to worship God together as well. We cannot dismiss the need for community and the impact of the local church!

Worship does not stop at the end of a Sunday morning service.

If our worship stops when we leave the church doors on a Sunday morning then we are doing it wrong. Romans 12:1 says, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” Our beings as followers of Christ are dedicated to the Lord. Our obedience to His word is worship to Him. It is gratitude for all that He has done for us. It is humility knowing that we don’t deserve His free gift but He has willingly offered it to us. We are to offer up our bodies to the Lord. Our hands and feet so that we can go where He says to go and provide how He leads and enables us to provide. Our brains so that we can figure out how to best help hurting and lost people. Our hearts so that we have the capacity to love others and so that we can use our passions and talents to bring the good news to the world.