Recently, at a worship concert, one of the leaders welcomed the crowd to feel free to worship as we felt comfortable. For many, that meant hands in the air. For others, eyes closed. Still more clapped, sang along, and few sat at all throughout the entirety of the experience. What is it about being in a big group that frees us to worship louder and bigger than we sometimes may at church on
Also, I am more comfortable worshiping in my car than in church. Why is it easier belting out my favorite worship songs in my car with the volume drowning me out than in my row amidst my church family? Am I doing it wrong?
Loud in the car or quiet in the row, He doesn’t care, as long as we’re there in His presence. The church activates when it leaves the building, and whether we’re in our car, have buds in, or stand alongside others at a worship concert, God loves it all.
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1. Worship is right here.
“‘Woman,’ Jesus replied, ‘believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has come now when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in Spirit and in truth.” (John 4:21-24)
God places us perfectly. Jesus taught boldly that it didn’t matter what or where or how, as long as the why and the Who of our worship were intact. Christ spoke about a better day to come, and those who were unaware of the folly of their misguided worship.
Authentic worship with our Father is a personal, all-consuming experience of joy-filled presence, that we share when we genuinely open up our off-key voices and heartfelt efforts to Him.
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2. Worship opportunities are all around us.
“The Lord says: ‘These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.” (Isaiah 29:13)
We can go to church and sing all the right songs with our hands in the air, even clap on beat and sing on key. But it’s meaningless to God if we’re just going through the motions to check it off our list. Worship is seeking Him.
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"Let’s not just pass by the scenery that surrounds us..."
He promises that where two or more are gathered, He will be, but He doesn’t stop there. I was reminded recently that though we may feel His presence greater in corporate worship, it’s not lessened in the slightest when we walk out the door.
He is with us always, in the same magnitude and might. Let’s not just pass by the scenery that surrounds us today, but let’s gaze up and meet Him in a moment of worship beside a beautifully turned autumn tree or a glass calm lake. As we peer into a sky, whether crystal blue or full of clouds, let’s meet Him in a moment of magnitude and marvel for how big and great He is. Worship is all around us.
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3. The desire to worship is in us.
“All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, Lord; they will bring glory to your name. For you are great and do marvelous deeds; you alone are God.” (Psalm 86:9-10)
We are created to worship God! The desire to be close to Him is in us from the beginning. There are gifts in all of us. When we are all flexing our gifts in His honor and lifting up our voices to Him, I imagine it sounds like the sweetest choir to Him. All so different yet born with the same desire to celebrate life.
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"The desire to be close to Him is in us from the beginning."
Not everything we’ve been gifted is a miraculous note of talent. I, for one, feel the most joy when I am car dancing and singing at the top of my lungs when I drive down the road. But, as so many reality singing contests have shown us, not all of us are meant to sing in front of a crowd. I believe those unbounded moments of joy that we share with God, under the cover of high volume and solitude, are some of the ones He cherishes the most.
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4. Worship is joyful.
“Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thangs to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.” (Psalm 100: 1-5)
An American distance runner once wrote that in her running career she found that smiling when she ran actually made her perform better. As someone who loves to laugh, and already smiles while running, I was anxious to apply her experiment. It did not always make a hard run more productive, or enjoyable, but it did do something. It activated the powerful quadrant in our minds that has the ability to drive us forward through things we can’t physically work out.
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"Worship with a smile, even a weepy one."
Worship with a smile, even a weepy one. Sometimes we all look so pained as we sing in church. And I get it. Life is a battle, and some of us are in the fight of our lives. Joy is not just giddy laughter, but also a sustaining hope that powers through the darkest life throws at us.
A friend of mine has two transplanted lungs that are being chronically rejected. When we visited her in the hospital, my friends and I were at a loss for what to say to mend her despair. We determined that she needed to laugh, and as we named funny things to watch, in walked one of our worship leaders in an inflatable TRex costume. That hospital room suddenly turned into an environment of worship, as our teary-eyed smiles laughed out all of the emotion that we didn’t know what to do with. He always does. And sometimes, just smiling and laughing, brings us through to a moment of healing we need to keep fighting.
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5. Worship is continuous.
“Sing to the Lord, all the earth; proclaim his salvation day after day.” (1 Chronicles 16: 23)
No, God doesn’t care if we would rather sing in the car than at church. He’d love us to do both. He’d love us to worship Him with our smiles, laughter, encouraging hugs and listening ears. In everything we do and all that we are, I believe He wants us to walk through life with a hope-filled heart. One that can be easily reminded of His omnipotence and extravagant love by the changing leaves on the Autumn trees and the laughter an inflatable TRex costume exudes.
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"... just keep singing..."
My prayer for all of us is that we just keep singing, both through the tears as they stream down our faces and with giddy smiles of celebration.
Worship is continuous, it’s joyful, it’s in us, all around us, and right here.
For more verses on worship, click here.
Meg writes about everyday life within the love of Christ on her blog, https://sunnyand80.org.She is a stay-at-home mom, freelance writer, blogger, and author of, “Friends with Everyone …Friendship Within the Love of Christ.” She resides in Northern Ohio with her husband of eleven years, two daughters, and their Golden-doodle.
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