Worship...What is it?

Worship... what does this word mean to you?  Does it mean going to church?  Opening your Bible?  Having fellowship with like-minded believers?

My pastor has recently been preaching on the subject of Worship each Sunday night.  When you worship you have an audience of One, when you sing during the service- are you concentrating on the words and realizing their importance?  Do you sing to be heard and glorify God or barely under your breath in fear that others will hear you?  Are are you looking at the words and applying them to your life?

On Wednesday nights during our weekday Bible study our teen leader and the pastor will ask for volunteers to pray for all the prayer requests given.  When I first started going to teen group I was terrified to pray aloud, would I mix up?  Say everything too fast and put "um", "uh", and "so" in every third word??  But then I began to put things in perspective, I wasn't praying to the people in the room, I didn't need my words rehearsed and perfect.  I was talking to God, He was sitting right next to me, He didn't care if I mixed up- He knew exactly what I meant!

When I sit in the service and listen to the pastor preach, am I there at church to be fed, or to give something back to God?  I certainly am fed at church, but if my mind wanders, if I suddenly begin to be more interested in doodling on my paper than on the message, how am I treating God?

Since I am in God's house, don't you think the Master of the house is also present?  He knows my every thought, He knows when my focus is no longer on Him.  What a rebuke it is to me when I think about it!  When you are in someone's home and the host is talking to you, if you zone out and begin scribbling or thinking on other things while he is speaking, it hurts the host and make him believe you don't care about his conversation, you only care about what you are doing.

God gives us every day to live for Him, how are we measuring up?  God has promised to feed, clothe, and shelter us, anything and everything else that is provided is a luxury.  He has promised to listen to our requests, but He is not obligated to fulfill them.

Worship is a time that we learn and soak up God's word, only to give it all back to Him in service.  As we sit in church our praise is directed upwards towards the King of Kings, only He is worthy of our praise.   When a person is praying at the end of the service and you hear several people echo the "amen" at the end of the prayer.  This means that even though they didn't pray aloud, they were listening to what the person praying was saying to the Lord and they were in agreement with him.  Do we concentrate on the  Lord constantly while in church?  Or are we looking around the room to see who is there and who we'll be talking with after the service is over?

God calls us to worship with others one day a week (or for some two days because of Bible studies).  When you walk into church, what is your heart attitude?  Are you prepared to give God everything as you sing and praise Him in all things?  Only one day a week does God command us to gather together and worship Him... are we obeying this order?  Not only by attending church, but by participating in the service, by making our every thought and action a reflection of what is necessary to be in communion with Christ.

I encourage you to prepare your hearts for worship, we come to church not for our own gratification, but to give glory to God.  Participate in the service, don't only read the words in the hymnal, apply them personally and realize their importance.  Remember, you are in an audience of One, all you do and say is a reflection of what you believe Christ is like, are you living up to this standard?  I know I personally have a lot of ground to cover in this area, but I hope you'll join me as I seek to accomplish this command Christ has given us.

God Bless!