Faith Through the Journey

The word worship probably brings a number of things to mind for most people. Worship happens in a church, it’s very reverent, solemn, serious, maybe kneeling or bowing one’s head is involved, but always a posture of respect. We call our church services “worship services”, and we assume that when we go to church we will be worshiping God. These are all good ideas, but may be missing the mark.

I went to a small Christian college in northwest Arkansas, where I had some wonderful professors. One in particular, Dr. Walters, gave us the challenging assignment or writing a paper on the subject of worship. We were to use only our Bibles, formulate a definition of the word worship, and write a five page paper supporting our definition. My research-and subsequent class discussions-brought us to the relatively simple definition of worship as being this: Worship is our response to God.

Obviously this is a wide open definition that can mean a whole range of options as to how that response is expressed! Our worship is an expression of or gratitude for all God has done for us. Depending on how much emphasis a church puts on our relationship to Jesus and our love for Him, expressions of worship will look very different from church to church. If our relationship to Jesus is casual, or formal, our worship will probably reflect that as well.

A number of years ago I was invited to become a part of our church’s “worship team”. This meant that I would be privileged to sing onstage and help lead our church family in singing praise to God. As our team prayed before the services, we asked God to make our hearts pure so that as we led our church in worship, our offering of worship would be pure as well.

During those years of helping lead the church in worship and sharing life with my “teammates”, God was working in my heart as I was not only leading others in praise, but responding to Him as I worshiped as well. Over time, the microphones and lights faded and what mattered most was just praising Jesus and making sure it was all about Him, not the performance-THAT was the worship He deserved!

The very interesting and special thing about worship is that it can happen in a huge crowd, or when we’re all alone. Because worship is all about our response to God, loving Him wherever we are makes it possible for worship to break out anywhere we are! In truth, at this point in my life, my most meaningful times of worship seem to be happening when I’m walking in my neighborhood listening to praise music, or even on the treadmill in a crowded gym as I’m plugged into my latest praise playlist! Never mind the funny looks I may get from people, I’m just loving Jesus! And somewhere in heaven, I think Dr. Walters must be chuckling over the fact that I finally understand what he was trying to teach us about worship!

However you respond to God, quietly or exuberantly, PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT YOU DO RESPOND!! He loves you and wants you!!