4.14.2009
"Worship is first and foremost for His benefit, not ours, though it is marvelous to discover that in giving Him pleasure, we ourselves enter into what can become our richest and most wholesome experience in life."
p.58 "A Heart For Worship" by Lamar Boschman
Lesson #1: Worship is For God, Not Us
God loves us. I mean, not a "I love beer and pizza" kind of love, but a "I want to see your life transformed and spend eternity with me" kind of love (Romans 5:8-10). Because He is head over heels in love with us, He wants to spend forever with us. He made this happen by sending Jesus. His Son. I know, it's strange to think about, but Jesus led a perfect life and died for us (John 3:16). What!?! Why would he do that?
Well, we've all sinned, which simply means we've missed the mark (Romans 3:23). For God to see us as pure & blameless- he needed a sacrifice. Jesus was that sacrifice. Unreal. A father allows His Son to die for you and for me. That's how much he cared. Again, unreal for me to even fathom.
So, you and I hear this, and what is our response when we come to Him? When we give our lives to Him and thank Him for His love??? We worship Him (Hebrews 12:28-29). We lift our voices, lives, actions, words, quiet time, priorities and everything to Him.
It's a very natural response that we bring to Him. When someone does something that we don't deserve (a little thing called grace), we can't help but want to thank them, respond to them, etc. It's the same with God/Jesus. We want to respond to them, but there's something we see in all of this...
It isn't about us. You and me. We aren't the objects of worship. It's not about the what, when, or how- but the "who" sometimes seems to get shifted (Isaiah 29:13). We watch as our worship comes from pointing to the one who is supposed to be worshiped to the one doing the "worshiping."
It seems to be a very natural progression considering everything in our current culture points to a selfish mode of operation.
- Drive Thru=get MY food to ME right now.
- Cell Phones=I want to contact you right now because it's convenient for ME
- Job=what can you do for ME so I can be happy
- Music=listen to what I want on MY mp3 player
- And the list goes on...
It's just as easy to carry that over into our worship and wonder "What is it doing for me?" When we begin to get into that mode, we've stepped in and blocked the one being worshiped and pointed it at ourselves instead. But, like the quote at the top, when we point everything to Him- it's amazing how we begin to experience one of the most amazing times of our lives.
Next Up- "So, I know it's about Him and not me, but is worship just music?"
J-del *over and out*