Worship

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been thinking a lot about worship.

(In this post, I will mainly be talking about sung worship, but the thoughts about attitude and approach to worship can cross into other forms of worship, and they are just as valid as sung worship. I’m just speaking from my own experience and personal worship style.)

At a recent Christian event I attended, the times of sung worship left me feeling frustrated after a few days.

Why?

Because we had only sung songs about what God had done for us and how he leads us out of dark times, heals us, does stuff for us.

There was nothing about how great God is, just because that’s who he is. There was nothing about how we should praise God just to praise him, because it’s demanded of us.

Don’t misunderstand me, there is nothing inherently wrong with singing songs about how God helps us in difficult times, but if that’s the only reason we’re worshipping God, then something’s gone wrong,

Singing too much about how God helped ‘me’, how ‘I’ am loved by God, etc. can affect our perception of God, and lead to us subconsciously thinking we deserve this love and assistance, either because we’re so great or that’s what God should do for those he loves.

One way to see if this falseness has entered your heart is, when things go wrong, do you get mad at God when he doesn’t instantly take everything bad away?

There was a song we used to sing when I was in Sunday School called ‘Have we made our God too small?’

God is deserving of praise and worship; not because of anything he’s done, but because he’s GOD. When we fail to worship him for who he is, we risk making him our personal genie or wishing well, and only thank him when he does something for us. We can forget he is the great I AM. The ‘I AM’ that created the universe. The ‘I AM’ that angels sing Holy, Holy, Holy before day and night. The ‘I AM’ that will one day recreate the heavens and the earth, and could easily blot us out of existence because there is no way we can be as holy as him.

We make him too small.

We still need the songs that remind us of what God has done for us, otherwise we are in danger of never coming to God because we fear he won’t care or intervene, but they need to be balanced.

Not all of us have a lot of say about the songs we sing in church on Sundays, but for those who do put the worship together, take some time to consider what message the songs you use put across to your congregation. You have a responsibility to your congregation; to ensure they are receiving good theology in every aspect of the service, not just from your sermon. Not everyone will listen to what you say, but they receive through the songs and other worship opportunities you provide. Make sure you’re clear in everything you lead.

And for those of us who don’t have a lot of say in the worship at our churches, you are responsible for how you worship during the week (yes, it’s more than a Sunday thing!). What worship songs do you listen to during the week? What Bible passages do you read? How do you worship? Take some time to consider where your heart is in worship, and whether you need to change anything.