WHERE WORSHIP HAPPENS

Volumes have been written about worship. Scores of messages have been preached. I’m am certain that I can add nothing to the wisdom on worship that has already been shared. I am convinced, however, of our great need to worship our God more. Jesus said that the Father is “seeking” worshippers. That declaration not only reveals the Father’s desire for our worship, but also, at least in my thinking, the rarity of worshippers. One does not seek what is readily apparent and available. I want the Father to find me a worshipper. Thinking on worship as I was out doing business yesterday, I suddenly became aware of when worship happens in one’s life. Worship happens when my fresh awareness of God’s greatness and goodness converges with my renewed awareness of my need. I worship because God is great and deserving and inspiring of my worship. I worship because I recognize my need of this great God. To come before God with only an awareness of His greatness, makes His greatness seem theoretic, distant, not-applicable to my life. To approach God with only an absorption of my need, makes me a self-centered sniveler viewing God as a source from which to get something I want. But, together, my acute awareness and fixation on His greatness and my need of Him, results in my worship of Him. In fact, such worship brings such trust, wonder, overwhelming love of God, that one soon has lost sight of his need and only his absorption with the greatness and goodness of God remains. Thus, worship, to put it in the words of two songs, is to come before God with a heart that says, “How Great Thou Art,” and “I need Thee, Oh, I need Thee, Every hour, I need Thee, Bless me now my Savior, I come to Thee.” Worship happens at the convergence of my awareness of God’s greatness and my need.