“My mind wanders thinking of days gone by;
the years long since passed. Then I
remember my worship songs I used to sing in the night seasons, and my heart
began to fill again with thoughts of You, so my spirit went out once more in
search of You.”
Psalm 77:5,6
My mind, heart,
and soul have been filled with much teaching, studying, and pondering the
things of God since I first took seriously the act of following Him and
committing my whole life to His Way.
Throughout the years new information has come and old information has
gone. I look at old notebooks and
journals filled with notes, remembering some and not others. I have been blessed to be in the company of
excellent teachers and great thinkers and I have grown well into the faith I
now live out. But the one thing that
touches me most in these ponderings of the past is the worship I have
participated in, both in groups and in my time of solitude.
Worship is a true
expression of love for God and it comes straight from my heart and goes right
to the heart of God. Knowledge is a
necessary element but it is so much more than knowledge and information that
resides in the mind. It is the fruit of
that knowledge and information that blossoms full bloom in my heart and fills
every cell of my being. There is a
“caught upness” in worship that consumes every bit of me; a lost ness in the
moment where I am unconscious to everyone and everything around me and only see
and feel God. It is an out of body
experience yet fully rooted in the reality of God and who He is.
I have seen the
word many times used in services and gatherings, but I know the reality of the
experience and the exchange that occurs and find many times when the word is
inaccurate to the experience, at least for me.
Worship is one of those terms that is used because that’s what is
expected to be seen in a service or gathering.
It is one of those things that can easily become rote, simply going
through the motions. But in the
Scriptures I see very clearly that God knows what true worship is and what is
not, and He addresses it many times.
True worship is directly connected to how well one knows God and is
undone by what God has done in his or hers life. This is more than an understanding of the mind;
it is the touching of the soul.
The Gospel of
Jesus Christ is the core of worship. Who
He was and what He did, who He is and what He does, is the very foundation of
worship. We hear about reconciliation
and forgiveness and appreciate it. When
we experience it we are apprehended and absorbed by it. The work that Jesus Christ did on the cross
was all about reconciliation and forgiveness.
Reconciliation requires forgiveness.
Forgiveness is the fruit of reconciliation, as is compassion and
mercy. They all go hand in hand and they
all take intention, time, and patience to develop and grow into fullness. There can be no wholeness without
reconciliation and forgiveness. They are
the only way back to the original innocence we were created in; the only way
back to the Presence of God; the only way back to being the image of God we
were created to be. This is what did for us…a mystery beyond mystery. How can I do anything other than worship Him?
Jesus came to
earth knowing that this was His mission.
It became His message to be spoken then; it became His message to be
spoken now by those who received and believed in His name. Reconciliation and forgiveness are not
optional for the true believer. God did
it for us; we must do it for one another.
To experience this for myself and then to experience it between myself
and others…this is why when the Kingdom of God comes together we will spend our
eternity worshipping God.
Like the other
things of the Kingdom
of God
When I remembered
my worship songs, my heart began to fill with thoughts of You, so my spirit
went out once more in search of You.
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