This morning at our church the pastor spoke on worship. To be honest, it was sermon in which my mind wondered quite a bit. I usually don't like when that happens, but this morning it didn't wonder too far; worship was what was on my mind. Our youth group has just come back from a week long retreat on a lake here CA. Throughout the sermon, various stories were recounted from the week; some were funny, some spoke of God's work in the hearts of kids there. As I listened, I was brought back to my high school years. I was never the "best" Christian growing up, and I had to learn many things the hard way, but I remember those times at summer camp, or with my youth group friends when I felt in a very real way God's presence among us. When you're a kid who loves the Lord, surrounded by other kids who love the Lord, worship is something so special and true; at retreats and camps, you're on top of the mountain, experiencing God in a very powerful and awesome way. I always remember never wanting those time to end; I always wanted to hold onto that feeling of closeness to God forever.
As we become adults it becomes easy for us have fewer and fewer of those mountain top experiences. Marriage, kids, work, and life in general get in the way; we just become too busy, and the days pass before we know it. For some adults (and I'm speaking from a very personal point of view), the desire to be cool and to not "ruffle people's feathers" stands in the way of worshiping God the way He deserves to be worshiped.
I sometimes look around during the singing portion of our church service and see people all over the sanctuary raising their hands in worship; as I stand...and sing...with my own hands down and clasped in front of me, I start to wonder how those people feel free enough to raise their hands, unashamed. Worship in that way...that all surrendering way...seems sometimes out of my grasp. As I grow closer to God though, and as I give more of myself to Him each day, I am beginning to experience freedom, and I am starting to feel the fresh, mountain top air lifting me up again.
I may not be a teenager anymore, surrounded by all of my Christian friends at a camp designed to draw me closer to God, but in James 4:8 God has promised that if I "come near to Him, he will come near to me". There have been times as an adult that I have forgotten that promise, that I have pushed Him away, and then blamed Him for not showing Himself to me. I am learning that worship is key in communion with Him, and it's key in drawing close to Him. The best part: I don't have to be a teenager to feel that way again.
In 2 Samuel 6 there's a story of David in which they are bringing the ark of God into Jerusalem. In verse 14 it says, "David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the Lord with all his might, while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets." Later in that chapter it talks about how David's wife, Michal, berated him for humiliating himself like that. In fact, in verse16 it says, "when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart." I like what he says to her in verses 21-22 (NTL), "I am willing to act like a fool in order to show my joy in the Lord. Yes, I am willing to look even more foolish than this..." In the end, because Michal criticized David's worship she was never able to bear children...worship is serious. I like this story because if David...a king and "a man after God's own heart"...can leap and dance for the Lord, I wonder what's stopping me.
I, in fact, do know what's stopping me, and I'm not sure I will ever (here on earth anyway) get to the point of leaping and dancing, but God does deserve my worship in everything. If we're too busy or too cool to worship Him, then maybe we need to reevaluate if we really know Him at all, and if we don't maybe we shouldn't be surprised if in the end He says, "I never knew you, depart from me" (Matthew 7:23). Our worship declares who we are in Him.
It doesn't take a high school retreat or a summer camp to draw close to Him; it takes an open heart, the recognition of His holiness, the acknowledgement that He deserves our worship, and the willingness to "act like a fool in order to show your joy in the Lord." Ask God to bring you back to your mountain top and then do the work it takes to stay there.
He deserves your worship, and as you commune with Him, He will meet you in a powerful and awesome way; He will meet you in a way that never has to end...stay close to Him and He will stay close to you.
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