Teens Meet Outreach

It is easily the best part of most people’s Sunday services. Just attending the worship session can be all some think they need in a service. That 30 minutes is lived with five to seven people with angelic voices on the stage with one of them standing out and leading, an instrumentalist playing the song in a beautiful crescendo that gives you goosebumps, and a drummer, gently hitting the drums and cymbals at intervals that sends chills running down your spine. Arms are usually open wide with crowns cast, eyes closed, and when the Holy Spirit is really at work, those eyes may open up the floodgates; knees and hearts are hallowed and bowed before the Father.

At an earlier session, which some people may refer to as the praise session, when it is, in fact, part of worship, there is a faster beat and tempo in the air, causing the feet to dance and palms to clap. Does that describe the first (few) hour(s) of your Sunday service, a.k.a., the worship session?

Like most people, missing the worship session in any service, especially on a Sunday is always a downer for me so I try to avoid it. However, something that I’ve recently been questioning during that session is a phrase that worship leaders say a lot at the beginning of the session; “Let us be in the mood of worship.” As much as I understand what they mean by that on a surface level, it almost takes away the whole essence of worship in itself.

worshipped also worshiped; worshipping also worshiping

transitive verb

1. To honour or reverence as a divine being or supernatural power

2. To regard with great or extravagant respect, honor, or devotion

John 4: 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

In the scripture above, Jesus was talking to the Samaritan woman at the well of Jacob and she referred to a mountain of worship and Jerusalem and which one was a more acceptable place to worship. These two places, the mountain, and Jerusalem are physical places of worship and for us today is like asking what church is more acceptable for us to worship at. For example, your home church where you were born or a more hip church your friend invited you to. Jesus then replied a few verses above this statement that a time is coming where you’d worship at neither. This is not to say that we don’t need a church community but it’s to say that those first 30 minutes of service or even the whole service itself, would not wholly define worship.

Worship would now be something you do in spirit and in truth. True worship as an act is something that the Father is seeking in his children.

Dear Christian, when you honor and reverence God with great, extravagant respect and devotion, limiting your worship to Sunday mornings won’t be sufficient for you. Worship evolves from a thing or routine you do and becomes a lifestyle.

True worship to the Father is a lifestyle. A constant lifestyle of acknowledging him as God. God, who is altogether sovereign, rules the earth with such great wisdom. God, who is your father and has your very best at heart, even more than you know or could ever imagine. True worship is a relationship with God. Our worship is a daily response to God’s infinite and beautiful works in our lives and in our hearts. It is submitting our will to him and knowing that his plans for us are always greater.

Worship isn’t singing. Worship isn’t serving in the church. Worship isn’t giving to the poor. A lot of people are doing these things and more, yet God is still seeking for true worshipers. People who will put him first and love him; wholeheartedly and unconditionally, just as he loves us. As Christians, we have been called and saved to worship.

1 Peter 2:9: But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth (proclaim) the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

As worshipers of God, we show forth and proclaim his praises in everything we do because he is God and as a grateful response for his saving us from sin. By all means, sing and raise your hands in adoration, serve in a church, give to the needy and to missions according to your capacity, because those are awesome expressions of worship. However, let Christ be the priority, do it all as unto him.

When worship is your lifestyle, you’re always in the presence of God, so technically, you never leave the church, so don’t feel bad if you unavoidably miss the worship session next Sunday. Worship should become a part of you. Let your worship to God be deliberate and conscious.

How do you worship God? Feel free to share with me in the comments below.

Also, don’t forget to subscribe to this blog to not miss a post.