One of the main things that i have felt God really put on my heart over the last few weeks and months is simply this:
"When we gather together to worship, we are there to give glory to God'
Sounds simple yes, is that not obvious?
In an ideal, perfect church this would always be the case, but could there be the potential that there are occasionally ulterior motives when we gather to sing, none of which are particularly dangerous, but most definitely aren't helpful.
In Psalm 103 it begins with this "Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being praise his holy name'
The entirety of this Psalm is one fantastic cry of worship from a man who was transfixed by God, and was always seeking new ways of wording his journey as a worshipper. We do see though, certain lyrical themes that will appear throughout the Psalms, 'Glory to God' 'Sing Praise to God' 'He is exalted over the nations' i could go on.. my point being that although David came up with new ways for describing how he was feeling in many of the Psalms, he never strayed far from these simple truths that take place in so many of our modern day worship songs. Truths which (here comes the admission) I have heard songs full of, and yet have thought "Thats an amazingly average song, we have used all those lines before!" and we can sometimes be too quick to go for the nearest 'Jesus is my girlfriend' instead, songs which i believe do have a place, but should not replace glorifying God for who he is.
So, to bring this back to my main point, i believe that sometimes many people approach a time of worship with a slightly skewed approach, as listed below:
1. PURELY to feel the spirit - The modern day charismatic church is seeing an amazing movement of the spirit's power, which symbolises that God is blessing us massively, and its very exciting to be a part of! However, there can be a wrong expectation, or wrong attitude where this is concerned with worship. Please don't hear what i'm not saying, i love being in God's presence, and i believe it's their that our Father really does business with our hearts, we are renewed in his presence, and find strength there. BUT, if we come into a time of congregational worship purely based on our need or desire to 'experience' God, this can be unhelpful. We, as human beings are created as instruments of worship, our every breath is as a work of Glory that God made, he doesn't need our worship to survive, but he created us for such a purpose. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 aid us with this. The Holy Spirit is a gift, an amazing gift, which he blesses us with, and boy should we be expectant! Just make sure it isn't our purpose!
2. That worship IS the church's purpose - This one is less of a minor issue, and more of a massive theological flaw. In Matthew 28:16 onwards, Jesus' told the disciples of their mission. Our mission is such as this, to make disciples of all nations, it would have been quite cosy if our mission was 'Gather on a sunday morning and sing songs' We need to make sure that our times of praising the goodness of God are the fuel for God's mission.
3. Its all about the songs we sing! - In spite of the opening paragraph, talking about songs, lyrics, appropriate songs choices etc... Worship is not about the songs we sing, its about the heart thats singing them. God isn't interested in your beautiful voice, or luscious melodies and haunting harmonies (although these are nice!) But he wants the heart to be crying out in pure adoration. I can't remember who first said this but it has always been one of my favourite phrases, "in the scriptures it says make a joyful noise, not a tuneful noise"
Lets give God everything, he is forever worthy, eternally steadfast, amazingly powerful, indescribably awesome and perfectly holy, how could our hearts sing any other name?!
Richard
