Worship is Everything That We Are …

Here’s my response:

Worship engages both the head and the heart. I remember reading a quote many years ago that has forever stuck with me, and it goes something like this: “Worship is everything that we are – recognizing and responding to all that God is.” We want to ensure that we have a solid grasp of the great God who we worship. That our knowledge and our view of God is correctly informed. It’s hard to love someone deeply who we don’t know. So we honour and adore him with what we have learned about him and learned from him.  #Truth

As I lead services across Canada and here at my home church… I often begin with a simple prayer: “Jesus, remind us of all that you’ve done, of who you are and of who we are in you”. I say this prayer in order to re-focus the congregation (and myself) and try to engage us at the heart level – drawing us into a place where we can reflect on His goodness (and as my kids say “the big-ness” of God) in a space of gratitude, awe and wonder.  Then we reflect on who we are in Him and how great his love, grace and mercy is for us – his children. When we have these thoughts deep in the center of our minds… our hearts will naturally want to fully and completely respond in worship. #Heart

Now if we take my simple prayer and see it within the framework of our lives as being an act of worship: everything changes. As we recognize who God is – our response calls us to put our love into motion. It affects and infects how we see ourselves, how we treat each other, how we approach difficulties, how we show generosity, how we act justly…. the list goes on. All that we are… responding to all that God is with our head and hearts. This what to worship in spirit and in truth means to me.