Worship. Direct communication with God. Pure joy at being known. Unleashed passion for the Creator by lifting up our voices in song. Merriam Webster describes it as "excessive admiration". Bruce Leafblad describes it perfectly:
Worship is communion with God in which believers, by grace, center their minds’ attention and hearts’ affection on the Lord, humbly glorifying God in response to his greatness and his word.
For the past couple of years, I have been given the privilege to be a part of the vocals in our churches band. While I love every second of it, sometimes I cannot seem to get through it! It's everything I can do not to cry through the whole thing. It's a beautiful thing to watch people from 4 years old to 92 worshipping the Lord all the while being so captivated by His Glory yourself that you can barely stand. My knees shake, my hands quiver and my heart skips a beat as we all sing with one voice to our Beautiful Lord and Savior. I hear this four year old girl in the front row, hands lifted high singing at the top of her lungs, an adorable old woman with a tear in her eye, my sweet husband arms raised, eyes closed and all I can think is wow...heaven must look something like this. The simple beauty of communion with God in the midst of the fellowship of believers, humbling ourselves before God.
Oh how beautiful is worship! I can't get enough, and I never want the song to end. But it doesn't have to...we can worship everyday, all day. Worship is not just the lyrics we sing, but the way we live our lives in response to the Word of the Lord and the greatness of His power. Worship is living humbly before the Lord as we give Him our whole lives "to will and to work for His good pleasure." Worship is the way we "center our minds attention and hearts affection on the Lord" not being distracted by the momentary passing of things of this world.
We can worship the Lord as we clean the house, work at our jobs, or in my case clean people's teeth and study. We can turn our minds towards the Savior and give Him the glory. This morning I was reading Ecclesiastes 2: 24-25 and it says "There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in His toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from Him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?"
This world is not our home. It is a beautiful place to worship The Creator through the work He has given us to do, but it is not our eternity. Worshipping with words grafted to melodies, arms raised in surrender, with the fellowship of believers is beautiful...but it is also a beautiful picture of worship when we take up our cross every morning with the rest of the believers around the world and worship the Lord as we work. So today, remove yourself from your situation and take a step back...God is doing amazing things all around us. He is alive and He is at work. There is so much to stand in His presence in awe for ...to praise Him for.
Let's stand with all creation today...and worship.
Oh how beautiful is worship! I can't get enough, and I never want the song to end. But it doesn't have to...we can worship everyday, all day. Worship is not just the lyrics we sing, but the way we live our lives in response to the Word of the Lord and the greatness of His power. Worship is living humbly before the Lord as we give Him our whole lives "to will and to work for His good pleasure." Worship is the way we "center our minds attention and hearts affection on the Lord" not being distracted by the momentary passing of things of this world.
We can worship the Lord as we clean the house, work at our jobs, or in my case clean people's teeth and study. We can turn our minds towards the Savior and give Him the glory. This morning I was reading Ecclesiastes 2: 24-25 and it says "There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in His toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from Him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?"
This world is not our home. It is a beautiful place to worship The Creator through the work He has given us to do, but it is not our eternity. Worshipping with words grafted to melodies, arms raised in surrender, with the fellowship of believers is beautiful...but it is also a beautiful picture of worship when we take up our cross every morning with the rest of the believers around the world and worship the Lord as we work. So today, remove yourself from your situation and take a step back...God is doing amazing things all around us. He is alive and He is at work. There is so much to stand in His presence in awe for ...to praise Him for.
Let's stand with all creation today...and worship.
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