A religious expert asked Jesus, “What is the most important thing for us to do?” Jesus replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Matthew 22:37 NIV
“Worship” is another ancient pathway that people have followed for generations. Worship begins in the heart and finds its voice as we sing, shout, dance, or weep. As a noun, it means “the feeling or expression of reverence and adoration.” As a verb, it means “to show reverence and adoration.”
How we worship is secondary. Primary is our heart’s response to God’s sustained initiative. The only way to miss the point of worship is to attempt to worship without engaging your heart.
Typically we think of worship as something we do on Sunday, in a church. Many confuse singing a song with worship. How is that? Well, mindless repetition of words does not necessarily engage the heart. Consider these lyrics from the Matt Redomond song, The Heart of Worship.
When the music fades
All is stripped away
And I simply come
Longing just to bring
Something that’s of worth
That will bless Your heart
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
I’m coming back to the heart of worship
And it’s all about You,
It’s all about You, Jesus
I’m sorry, Lord, for the thing I’ve made it
When it’s all about You,
It’s all about You, Jesus
We simply cannot worship with our heads or in a hurry. Slowing helps us worship.=
Eugene Peterson, the author of The Message, a personal paraphrase of the Bible, distinguishes three kinds of language in our culture:
- Level 1 language is information and engages the head.
- Level 2 language is manipulation or motivation and engages the emotions.
- Level 3 language engages the heart.
The language of the Bible is Level 3 — it is designed to engage the heart — and therein is the rub for most of us (myself included) who spend more time in our heads and emotions than we do our heart.
To worship is to contemplate the ‘weight’, greatness, eminence, power, and authority of God. (1) Quoted by Brennan Manning in Ruthless Trust. That He is both infinite and intimate. Owner of a thousand sheep on a thousand hills; captures each tear of yours in a bottle; aware of each ache, dream, thought and hope in your heart and a billion others. He is able to engage in millions of conversations at the same time without a dropped call.
“He stretches out the north over empty space and hangs the earth on nothing. He wraps up the waters in His clouds, and the cloud does not burst under them. He obscures the face of the full moon and spreads His cloud over it. He has inscribed a circle on the surface of the waters at the boundary of light and darkness”….Job 26:7-10 NASB
Yes, God is worthy of our worship.
Yet what happens when tragedy strikes?
There is an enormous difficulty we crash into when we consider worship. What happens when the tragedy in the form of a stillborn baby, the cold loneliness of a husband denied access to his 87-year-old wife of 60 years as she lies in a cold room at a memory care facility, “how does dare to propose (a heart) of trust in the face of raw, undifferentiated heartache, cosmic disorder, and the terror of history? — Brennan Manning, Ruthless Trust, Page 39
We can do nothing but trust, as did Jesus facing the brutal injustice of His crucifixion when His heart screamed across the universe, “Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit!” Luke 23:46 ESV
Intellect fails us. Emotion overwhelms us. It is our heart with which we trust. Jesus alone is the hope which is the anchor for our soul.
Worship transforms us to progressively become more like Jesus. God is not insecure; He has no need for us to tell Him how great He is. Worship, whether corporate or alone, is meant to usher us into God’s presence. There, as we are overwhelmed with His beauty and majesty, we are changed.
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Pray
I’m like the guy who wrote the lyrics God — I want to return to the heart of worship. Help me sit still long enough to begin to capture a glimpse of Your glory. Amen
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