Worship is more than just listening to a praise song but actual acts of trust and obedience.
Musical worship sounds create vibrations that cause an emotional response to retreat to our Savior but it doesn’t stop here. Just because one sings and raises their hands during a praise song doesn’t mean their heart and actions are in worship. Worship starts within the heart. It is a choice to choose God’s will over human or world inspired will. A question that we must continually ask ourselves is:
Am I truly worshiping God or am I giving him lip service when a praise song comes on only to retreat back to my own human will and understanding?
Is my worship framed as true worship but my heart far from the Lord?
True worship is true surrender and oneness with the Lord. It’s an everyday decision to crucify the flesh and yield to the Holy Spirit. The Lord energizes one to do His will but it is a choice to choose Him back.
““I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. “You shall have no other gods before Me. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them.
For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”
Exodus 20:2-6 NKJV
True or false worship can travel down 3 and 4 generations. True worship thus is more than a song but a generation changer. Ask yourself today if you are truly worshiping God in spirit and in truth? Are your decisions reflective of the worship you have for the Lord or are they rooted in human understanding? God wants our entire being not just raised hands and empty hearts.
Personal Testimony
I often perform a self-examination to make sure I’m practicing what I preach. As I grow more with Christ I can identify things that try to pull me away from Christ. This can vary from media, people, certain thoughts, etc. In order to stay in a posture of true worship I have learned to immediately focus my attention and desire to Christ and lay down my own thinking.
This is an everyday (and sometimes every moment) decision to not be lead by feelings but align my thoughts with the Lord.
I’ll be the first to say that this takes maturing in the Spirit as my thought process wasn’t always this way. If something did not go my way, I would pray manipulative prayers like “Lord, make them change to do ________” or “I’ll do it if _______” or “Show me a sign”. These types of prayers were rooted in self-righteousness which has no place in the kingdom of God.
Once I surrendered my way of thinking to the Lord, I gained His perspective and truly worshiped Him in all that I did.
Today, perform an introspection and make the decision to worship God in your thoughts, actions, and decisions. Crucifying the flesh may be initially painful but will produce a harvest of righteousness and peace.
“But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
John 4:23-24 NKJV
