CONNECTED WORSHIP

Is worship something structured and specific? I was recently posed this question about a month ago and it really got me thinking. I think this is a very important question to ask. To be effective worshipers, we must understand what worship is and how God wants us to participate and experience it. Worship is a very powerful experience with God. I think that the effects of worship are very much needed today. The writer of the book of Hebrews reminds us to ”approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” If there is a need, want, worry, circumstance or anything else in your life that needs a touch from God, pay close attention to what God says about worship. Because with true worship, comes help in your time of need. So what is it anyway?

WHAT IS PRAISE

I think we often interchange the words Praise and Worship. But praise is not the same thing as worship. Praise can be part of worship but worship is not only praise. It is more. Our english word praise is halal (haw-lal’) in Hebrew. It means to put on a show, boast, be clamorously foolish, to rave and celebrate. Psalm 150 gives us a great picture of using instruments and dance, shouting and singing to put on a show for God, to declare His mighty acts and His greatness. At the end of the Psalm we are commanded to praise…”Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.” I believe that God wants us to use our creativity and expression to go overboard in praise. 

WHAT IS WORSHIP

I think the main difference between praise and worship is that praise is a personal expression of gratitude. It comes from our hearts but it is something we think to do and use our creativity to choose how to praise at any moment. Worship is taking it one step further. It is specifically one thing, bowing down before God in complete humility. The Hebrew word for worship, shachah (shaw-khaw’), is defined as paying homage or prostrating yourself. I really believe that if we look back to the old testament and see how the priests gave homage to God in the tabernacle, this was very specific. Even reading through Exodus 25 and learning about how Moses was instructed to build the tabernacle to very detailed plans, shows that God had something very pointed and purposeful in mind. For us today, we can look to Romans 12:1 and see that presenting our bodies as a sacrifice is what God wants. However, he asks for an acceptable sacrifice. That acceptable sacrifice is our heart, soul, body and mind completely bowed in submission and homage before God. This may look different to different people. Some congregations may practice this corporately in varies ways. But it is always the same specific idea, prostrating yourself before God in humility. Consequently, I don’t think there is any coincidence that immediately after verse one in Romans 12 Paul writes about having your mind transformed and thus knowing the will of God. 

We all need our minds renewed, we all could use a little bit more of understanding and living God’s will. We all have times of need in which we need help. Worshiping God is specifically setting ourselves aside and giving it all to Him. Whether in song, prayer, fasting or service (to name just a few), times of refreshing come when we meet with God the way he prescribes (Act 3:19); when we enter His gates with thanksgiving, enter His courts with praise, and offer Him our life as an acceptable sacrifice in worship.