Truth and worship

As Christians we are all worshipers, in fact, everyone is potentially a “worship leader” in their own right. Whether at work, or at home – we worship God and hopefully lead others to His beautiful presence if only by their being with us as we bring our own personal testimony of our God-faith wherever and however we can.

I love that. I love our call to worship – whether we do it in front of people from a stage or not. I mentioned a few weeks ago a verse that I had found in the Message Paraphrase that captures the essence of this ‘lifestyle’ we call worship. It’s not about a platform or an event, it’s about our lives given to God in worship (…and music is optional).

“God takes particular pleasure in acts of worship – a different kind of “sacrifice” – that take place in kitchen and workplace and on the streets.” Heb 13:16 [message]

Ok, so let’s continue to talk about worship…and truth. The other day I shared with you a story about my friend who realized his ‘worship offering’ was being compromised. His flesh was simply starting to make some noise. This is also a great example of truth in our worship. We need to be more ‘aware’ as Christians. That ’still, small voice’ isn’t as loud as the enemy’s. Distractions are very loud and bright n’ flashy and our flesh fits well into this category.

The Bible says: “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.” (John 4:23)

We are spirits ourselves, and with God, as a Spirit also, we can communicate very easily on a spiritual level. But there is a ‘physical’ aspect that we often ignore. That is the truth of our humanity (our flesh) that we can’t ignore. We can’t give license to ourselves by sweeping things under the carpet or putting them on the back-burner.

Fortunately we have the Holy Spirit to guide us and to give us direction, help us discern right from wrong, but again that voice is often very still and small and we need to be listening for it to hear it. Many times we feel like ‘it’s all good’ because no one has challenged us, or we haven’t ‘gotten in trouble, or been busted’. Many of us live very unaccountable lives and we feel like if we do all the ‘right things’ on the outside, people will just marvel at our ‘ministries’, giftings and callings, so the other stuff (flesh; sin, etc.) just doesn’t matter. Wrong.

Two very important verses to keep in mind if this is the road you are on:

The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.” (Isa 29:13)

and… then more strongly God addresses the church in Thyatira (starting at Rev. 2:18). He begins by telling them how ‘impressive’ they are at “faith, the service and persistence“, but they are letting ungodliness reign (you should read it in full-context to grasp the depth of both the sin and God’s anger). After God expresses His displeasure He explains the consequences for such behavior and then in verse 23, God says:

“Then every church will know that appearances don’t impress me.” Followed by, “Hold on to the truth you have until I get there.”, (vs 25), for the people who are choosing Him, choosing truth and not giving themselves over to such sinfulness.

Truth is so crucial in worship. We must worship God in spirit and in truth – the balance is critical. If we only worship with our mouths, not involving our heart, our passions – something is drastically missing – our worship and relationship with God is simply ‘going through the motions’. Looking at the verse above (Isa 29:13), God doesn’t want your lip-service, He wants your heart…He doesn’t want you to put Him on a to-do list, He wants your love. Clearly, this is very much a spiritual activity (more than words) – our spirit interacting with the very Spirit of God…At the same time, we must be fully aware and in pursuit of the truth at all times. Continually lining our lives, actions, and thoughts up to the yardstick of God’s Word.

We cannot be lost in one thing or the other; Worship is an activity that involves the deepest places of our hearts, the depth of our being (our spirit) and our most discerning, Holy Spirit-provoking thoughts from a mind that is faithfully seeking wisdom and truth everyday, without fail. (God’s Word should be our constant companion!)

Worship is a serious activity. It is a calling – it is what God asks of us. It is not simply a musical playtime, nor is it mindless or thoughtless. It is vulnerable, it is intimate, while being an offering given out of humility and love for our Gracious and Great, Almighty God.

To live lives for God, we must have truth. Just as I am writing this I am strongly reminded of a verse that was very much on my radar a few years ago… wow…*pause* (and I’m only connecting the dots as to why that was now – hmmmm, anyways….) so let me include this as we end off today.

David writes, “Surely you desire truth in the inner parts ; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.” (Ps 51:6)

I love Psalm 51 (you should definitely read this in it’s entirety). Yes, God does desire for us to have truth in our innermost parts. If you seek Him, He will give you wisdom about your secret-places. That is if you are seeking truth. You can turn from it, tell yourself everything is ‘o.k’ because no one else is seeing it, but if you want to live a life of worship as we are all called to, we must have truth – our worship involves our being honest with ourselves and where there is sin and personal, moral failure, seeking to make those things right, pursuing a life of holiness as we seek to give our lives to God in worship.

That’s it from me…. I totally didn’t expect to write so much…hope you can get through it ok….

From my heart to yours…as always,
♥er