Worship

Have you ever heard of Jeremy Riddle? I hadn’t until he came to our church back in 2011 for a weekend conference where he was one of our guest speakers. If you haven’t heard of him, he is an amazing song writer, musician, and worship leader.

During Jeremy’s talk with us, he said something that I am going to paraphrase here that I’ve never forgotten. Before I tell you what he said, let me give you a little background. I was raised Catholic. When we went to church, we dressed nicely and quietly sat in our seats. We followed the order of the mass and only after mass was over, did we converse with our neighbors. It was very ritualistic. While we sang, we held our hymnals in our hands so there was never a question of what to do with them – you held your hymnal!

Fast forward quite a few years. I started attending a medium sized evangelical church. I really enjoyed the music. I did, however, feel uncomfortable at first. People would raise their hands while singing and some people danced where they stood. On occasion, someone would even fall to their knees and cry. This was very different than the environment in which I had been raised.

This is where Jeremy Riddle comes into the story. During the conference, he shared with us how he worships. What I remember him saying is that if the song talked about kneeling, he knelt. If the song talked about dancing, he danced. He didn’t worry about what others had to say because he wasn’t there to impress them. He was there to worship God and he was going to worship him with everything he had. I’ve never forgotten that.

A few years later, I heard or read something else that deeply affected my worship. I wish I could remember where so I could share the source of this wisdom with you. Alas, I don’t remember. What I do remember is the message and it made perfect sense to me. Most of us go to church for what we can get out of it. For many, it’s like being dragged to a party you really don’t want to go to, yet your spouse insists. We are only half present. We daydream or play on our phones figuring people will think we are on our bible app. Afterwards, we chat with our friends, check the box off our “to-do’s for good Christians” and go home. If someone asked, we couldn’t even begin to tell them anything about what was preached.

When we attend church, instead of going to get something, we should be going to give something. We should be giving our full selves in worship. This will look different for everyone. Some will raise their hands in praise. Some will fall to their knees. Some will simply close their eyes and focus on our Savior. It doesn’t matter what it looks like to anyone else. What matters is being fully present and focused on praising and worshipping God.

 We should also give our full attention to the sermon as doing so is really another form of worship. God has put the message being delivered on our clergy’s heart to share with us. We are being disrespectful to God if we do not give them our full attention when s/he is speaking.

It is a privilege to be able gather openly and in public. I think we forget that in many countries, people are murdered for being Christians. They must worship God in secret. We are so very fortunate and blessed we can still gather as a church. Let’s not take this for granted! We may not always have this freedom.

To bring this back to the beginning, my husband and I now attend a small church in our community. I no longer worry about what others around me will say. You can often see me moving with the music and raising my hand to the Lord. (I only raise one so as not to hit my husband with the other!) ?  I’ll be honest. It felt weird at first. Now it just feels right. It’s amazing how much more I get out of services since I stopped caring about what others thought of me and just started focusing on worshipping God. It’s also amazing how much better I feel when I am fully focused on what I can give rather than what I can get.

Just for today, won’t you focus on giving your all-in worship to the one who gave His only Son that we would be saved?

Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
Psalm 95:6

Until next time, may your days be blessed!

– PSG –