Is our worship fit for a King?
In todays society it has become more evident that people are falling away from the heart of worship. In the bible people were known to dance, sing, clap their hands, and even shout before the Lord, all with the intent to fully worship him. I believe that God never changes. He is the same forever and always. Just because our ways of society have changed, should the way we praise and live for the Lord change also?
Too many churchs today are filled with a congregation that will barely sing to the Lord, let alone clap their hands or even find an alter to bow down and pray. Most often when people feel the need to outwardly express their love for Christ, they quickly let their flesh tell them to do otherwise. It is common to hear even a pastor want to take a passive stand for worship. "Now with every head bowed and every eye closed,no looking around now, just lift your hand if you have a need or you need prayed for", does that expression sound familiar? It is great for a pastor to pray for others, that is their job in fact, but with a matter as life and death as where you will spend eternity, should we really be wanting to "hide" the fact that we are acknowledging the Lord? What would have happened to our souls if the Lord had decided he was too ashamed of us to fully commit to what he was asked to do?
That being said, what will it take to get back to the heart of worship and put everything we have into acknowledging our King and savior. I know if you are reading this then you are most likely a Christian and want to do Gods will. Well, Gods will is that we always offer up praises fit for a King. With our hands, words, attitudes, even the way we dress we can offer up love and worship to him.
The bible is very specific and offers tons of wisdom to concerning this subject and to help us better ourselves in our worship. Isaiah 12:5 says, “Sing to the LORD, for he has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world". Isnt this saying ,very bluntly, that we are to sing aloud, and let others know how good God has been to us? It is okay to sing, even to sing loudly, because I believe we should all be unable to contain our praises for what he has done in our lives. Letting these praises pour out from our lips is such a small offering to him that died for our sins on Calvary.
Psalm 95:6 states, "Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!" This is one of many verses calling us to conquer our flesh and its desire to stay in its "comfort zone" go before the alter and bow down in worship to our king! I highly doubt that an embarrased hand raise is what the Lord is looking for from his followers. In the bible, how many times do we read of the apostles or people coming to the Lord for healing "fall down at his feet". If we believe Jesus raised himself from the dead and is here among us still as the holy spirit then must we not also believe what the bible says about "Where two or three are gathered in my name there shall I be?(matthew 18:12)" Would you just barely raise your hand to the Lord if he was physically sitting in a chair up at the alter of your church? Or would you fall down, cry out for his mercy and forgiveness, and worship him with your whole being just because you could see him with your own eyes?
How many verses of the bible talk about singing, dancing, joyfully worshiping? Isn't it time to pay our what is due to the Lord through the way we worship? Here are just a few scriptures that call for more then just "lip service" to our King.
* Psalm 149: 3 "Let them praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with tambourine and lyre!"
*Psalm 150: 1-6 "Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! ..."
*2 Samuel 6:14 "And David danced before the Lord with all his might"
Maybe its time that we remember just who he is and what he did for us. What better time than now to start bringing our souls back to the heart of worship then right after Easter. We were just reminded that we serve a living, breathing, holy God that died and ressurected himself just for us! That's exciting! The least we can do for him is what he created us for: Worship him always and bring the one sacrifice that he always expects from us, Hebrews 13:15 "Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name."
Written by Tara Eveland for "Serve One Another In Love"
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