A Heart of Worship
How Can We Restore a Heart of Worship?
During the fall semester of my second year of college, I took a class entitled Fundamentals of Political Geography. I absolutely hated the class. The professor was one of my favorites. I had one of my best friends in the class. The class was a requirement for my major so I was interested in it, at least to an extent. The class material itself was interesting enough and it was well taught. What was the problem? It was at 8:30 in the morning. I could not bring myself to get up for the class. One thing you must understand about college students is the majority of us do not go to sleep until 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning, so 8:30 classes are a real problem. I had to drag myself out of my dorm room every MWF at 8:20 so that I could go to class. Out of all the classes I have taken at Freed Hardeman University, this class is one of my most skipped. I could have been doing things a lot more beneficial to me, like sleeping. On top of that, I had my Greek class immediately following, which caused a lot of academic stress. I will honestly admit my heart was not invested in Fundamentals of Political Geography. Now let us honestly ask ourselves; is this our attitude towards worship. How many times do we have to drag ourselves out of bed to go to worship on Sunday mornings? How many times do we make the excuse that we simply have too much to do or need to relax instead of going to worship? It is as if the God who made all things is not worthy of our time. When we actually get to worship we look like mummies being forced to worship the Almighty God instead of actually being excited to worship. For most of us, however, the problem is not getting in the building. The problem is our hearts during worship. So much of the time, worship feels like a funeral instead of a passionate outpouring of our love for the One who transformed our hearts. Instead of worship being intentional, it becomes a monotonous period of useless activities. Sometimes, it is as simple as us not being focused in worship. Maybe we begin thinking about lunch, or the football game, or how the singing sounds, or how long the prayer lasts, or the weird tie the preacher is wearing, or the baby that just won’t stop crying. It is a problem and it has always been a problem. It is a problem I do not claim to have a simple fix to. It is a problem we all struggle with no matter how spiritually mature we may be. What I want to suggest is some ways that we can reignite our heart of worship.
Perhaps the first thing that we must recognize is that we have a problem. Many might be tempted to say that worship cannot be rejected by God and God will accept our worship in any and all forms. That is not a reality that Scripture testifies to. In Isaiah 1, God very plainly rejects the worship of the Israelites on the ground of their hearts not being in the proper place. For it is written:
Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom! Give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah! “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. “When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations—I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood (Isa 1:10-15).
Were the people of God not supposed to make animal sacrifices to the Lord? Were the people of God not supposed to burn incense in worship to the Lord? Were the people of God not supposed to celebrate the Sabbath and the new moon celebrations? Did God not tell them that He would hear their prayers? They were doing all the right things, on the right days, towards the right God. Why did God reject their worship? Their hearts. This message is as difficult today as it was during the times of Isaiah. Later in Isaiah, the Lord summarizes the condition of the worship that the people of God gave to them, “Because this people approaches Me with their words, and honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me, and their reverence for Me consists of the commandment of men that is taught” (Isa. 29:13 NASB). Though the people of God honored God with their lips, they were rejected because their heart was far from God. Our posture during worship must be correct or it will be rejected by God.
I present two reasons addressing how we can restore a heart of worship. We must first realize why we worship and who we are worshipping. Why worship? This question is at the heart of worship. It is a question that we all must answer based upon our own inner dispositions. Do you worship because that is what your family has done for decades, if not centuries? Do you worship because your friends are doing so? Do you worship because of the benefits that come with it (encouragement, edification, joy, etc.)? Do you worship because God simply commands you to? I submit to you that all the above reasons to worship, some of which I have fallen guilty of, are incorrect reasons to worship. We should want to worship because who God is. He is worthy of all of our worship and all of our adoration. I am convinced the only way we will have a proper heart of worship is to redirect our hearts towards God. We have to worship because we have seen who God is and want to love and worship Him with all we have. Worship is directly tied to who God is and what He has done. When we forget who God is and what He has done, our worship is useless. We must heed the warnings of our Lord Jesus when He told the church of Ephesus to go back to her first love (Rev. 2:4-5). The worship of God should be engrained in our very spirit that we cannot help, but worship God. We should find our delight in the Lord and we should let the word of God change our hearts to the extent that we want to sing praises to our God as Paul writes to us in Colossians, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (Col. 3:16). What does having our hearts directed to God look like in our lives. If our heart is directed to God we are in close communion with Him. We seriously study the Scriptures, we pray to Him honestly, and worship passionately. We walk in the light as He is in the light. However I, by not means, intend to scare you by making you think your worship is useless because you occasionally get distracted during worship. Sometimes our minds and our hearts will wander because of an external force and there is really nothing we can do to stop it. Remember the words of the Hebrews writer in Hebrews 4, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). God knows your heart and your intentions. Have a heart of worship and God will see that even when the distractions plague our mind.
The second important step we must take after directing our hearts to God is to restore reverence in worship. Worship is not a game and worship is not entertainment. Worship is about God and God alone. Therefore, we must reverently approach the throne of God, acknowledging God’s power and authority while also recognizing our own finitude. If God is holy that means we must treat Him as holy. Consider Nadab and Abihu in Leviticus 10. We use this text as a prooftext so often to prove the regulative principal of worship, but I believe an even deeper message is being conveyed by the Holy Spirit. After Nadab and Abihu are consumed by the strange fire they had offered in worship to God, Moses reminds Aaron of the commandment of the Lord, “By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy, And before all the people I will be honored” (Lev 10:3). There is an expectation of reverence and honor on the part of the people of God when God is worshipped. God must be obeyed and respected. Perhaps the author of Hebrews had this story in mind when he writes, “Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:28-29). The Hebrews writer and the author of Leviticus make a common connection; we must reverently worship God. What does reverence look like? It implies not just acts of submission to God, but also a fervent love for God. It includes respecting the commandments of God in not just our worship, but throughout the fabric of our lives. It includes realizing there is nothing more important than the worship of God. It includes taking worship seriously and being very intentional about everything we do in worship. We submit to God in this way, because we love God.
The worship of God is what the Christian life is all about. Christians should be all-in during worship, leaving nothing behind. The week of the Christian should lead up and culminate in the worship of God on Sunday. Christians should have their hearts directed towards God and be reverent during worship. Only then, will we have a heart of worship that honors our God.
Almighty God, we glorify Your name as Your people. We pray that we would direct our hearts towards you. Bowing our heads to the ground from which we were made, but lifting up our hearts to the One who created us. We are in awe of Your greatness and majesty. You are holy. We pray we would approach You in reverence, in submission, and in awe. We pray that You would grant us a heart of worship. Through the name of Your Son we live and pray. Amen.
All scriptures are English Standard Version unless otherwise noted.