What Is Worship To You?

Last Sunday we had a ministry fair after church. I was in the worship booth and I had a board up with the question, "What is worship to you?". People wrote their thoughts and tacked it up. I took a picture of it and cleaned up. A few days later I went to read the responses and I was surprised to see that Emerson had added a few post-it's.

Ever since I've been leading worship I've been searching to understand what exactly worship is. All throughout the Bible there is the constant theme of worshipping the Lord before, during, and after. David himself was such a consistent worshipper, always coming to God for everything. Job even worshipping through all his trials simply by turning to God with his questions and lament. The way the Lord's Prayer is laid out is a telling how-to on how to worship. How the living creatures in the book of revelation worship. Wow!

Matt Redman and Jeremy Riddle have an excellent podcast dissecting different aspects of worship. They said that worship is going into the presence of God together. Like a priesthood. 

I love that Emerson said the worship is, "showing faith in the Lord with and without beauty". 

Sally Michael said, "To want, think about, and love something most of all, and do anything to get it, is called "worship"."

To me, worship is an offering to the Lord in response to the glory of the Lord. It is a means of articulating our devotion and gratitude and for who He is. But one thing I'd like to note is that there is nothing here about how I/we feel. Worship is not about us or what we are getting out of it. Sure, oftentimes God uses the Holy Spirit to turn our hearts to Him during worship, but we don't come to worship expecting to receive - we come to worship to give. 

Three things I feel convicted about with worship is: 

1. How important it is when leading to produce worshippers of God and not worshippers of entertainment. - Riddle 

2. How crucial it is in my role to display how big God is. If we understand how big and holy He is then we can trust Him with our whole lives - problems, present, future, and our past.

3. "Success" as a worship leader is not in the sound that is produced or the amount of people willing to serve, or in the perfection of the set, but in the heart that is coming before the Lord. Search my heart Lord! God will do the rest.

Here are the questions I ask myself all the time:

- Is my heart humble? 

- Am I disciplined in pursuing God through His Word everyday? 

- Are my decisions, feelings, letdowns, and victories focused on pleasing the Lord (and not man)? 

I wasn't planning on writing about worship today so my thoughts are a bit scattered. There's so much more but for now, this is a good start. I'd love to hear your thoughts on worship too.