To Worship or not to Worship

It is 9:40pm right now as I write this. I don't have Internet at the house yet, so I have to post this up in the morning (but I will be getting Internet in my house, hopefully this weekend) I am sitting in my office just thinking about worship and this weekend. I am also working on a couple of songs that I have been writing. It is about 4 of them right now that I am working on. But I have no rush, I am taking my time in developing them. As I am sitting here in my desk, the same thought I had a couple of days ago came back into my mind . In one of my recent blogs I mentioned that as a worshiper you can't always be lead by the what you see (the visual). Now that I have this in my mind a will talk about it (because I might forget later).

We are in a time right now where “seeing is believing”. We have a generation of people that our lead by what they see or don't see and not by faith, passion, and love. And because of this, I see this same attitude being brought to the altar. Worshipers who are dictating there worship, and love for God on a person/s or a congregations reaction. They are being led by what they see. Let me explain a little. There have been times that we have had a powerful life changing worship service in our church and the moment we step down from the altar, I will hear a member from the worship team say, “Man tonight's service wasn't that good, nobody was worshiping” or “Tonight's service was OK” or some comment like that. And in my mind I am saying, “What! how can you think that, God moved amazingly and we all gave our hearts out there!”, “How can you say it was just an OK service!”. I cannot begin to tell you how that attitude and that approach will destroy your love for worshiping God. I say this because I lived it. I would have the same attitude and the same approach. After a powerful service that I lead, I would be frustrated instead of excited because the service didn't go the way “I” wanted it to go. God didn't do what “I” wanted Him to do or nobody worshiped the way “I” thought or wanted them to, and because of that worship started becoming more and more like a job. My love, fire and enthusiasm for worship drastically sank. I began to loose my desire of being in the altar worshiping my Savior. Ultimately it lead me to step down from the worship ministry for 6+ months. But you might say, “Johnny, I never say those things” Listen we need to realize that even if we don't physically say those things, thinking it will bring the same damage. That thought will reproduce into something bigger and stronger in your life.

As I talk about this issue I begin to think about Paul and Silas. If you don't know what I am talking about, the story is found in Acts 16: 16-40. The Bible says in verse 23 “They were severely beaten, and they were thrown into prison.” The Bible also says in verse 25 “Around midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening.” When I read this I see two men that were not lead to by the visual or what they could or couldn't see. Because what they saw with there own eyes was a prison, bloody bodies, wounds, prisoners with no hope, and the list can go on and on. But my point is that they worshiped the One they believed in. They worshiped the One that was in their hearts. They worshiped the One they trusted. Can we say they same?

I am not here saying that we shouldn't care for the congregation or the people of God. I am also not saying that we should lead worship and just forget about everyone and go off into our own little world. As worshipers we have the responsibility of providing an atmosphere of worship and leading the people of God into the presence of God through worship as well, but what do you do when people don't want what you are bringing or offering? What do you do when people don't want to worship? What do you do when people don't want to lift there hands, clap, dance yell or even sing? Do you say, “I am not doing this for a while!” Do you get discouraged? Do you loose a little bit of passion? Do you loose a little bit of fire and enthusiasm to be there again next week? No you don't. You get up and realize ultimately who you did it for. And because you did it for Him, you can get up in that altar next week, with passion, with fire, enthusiasm, commitment, love and ultimately realizing that your worship can only go one way and that is up!

Think about it!

Until next time!

Stay blessed