During this season, we’ve been practicing different spiritual disciplines to turn our gaze toward God. We’ve been creating space in our hearts and proclaiming His truths over our circumstances, and in doing so are discovering again that He is our joy and that He satisfies all of us.
And in this lifelong journey of finding God with the help of these spiritual disciplines, we actually begin to respond to Him through worship.
Worship is adoration for God and an expression of His worthiness.
And it blossoms out of the discovery of who God is.
And here is the arresting truth: that we can actually bring God joy in our worship.
It’s not that He’s self-conscious nor does He need our songs or money. Our worship doesn’t add or subtract from Him in any way.
But rather, this God who has everything and is complete in every infinite way, takes delight in us.
I want you to pause here for a moment. Because this begins to shift our paradigm.
God actually wants your heart.
As we are almost halfway through this Lenten season. I want to use this week to take a breath. Because our lives as Christians aren’t meant to be lives of discipline for the sake of discipline, or action for the sake of action.
Rather, God is inviting us into a dance. As we are filled with the joy and satisfaction of knowing God, we actually bring Him joy by reflecting and magnifying Him in our worship.
Meditate on passages of Psalm 100:
Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
Know that the Lord is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations
Amen.
Having a heart of worship can look like praise on a Sunday, but it’s also reflected in the way we love and care for others, the way we steward this earth and our finances, how we parent our children, the way we work or study.
So how do we cultivate a heart of worship?
- We remember God’s faithfulness and we thank Him for who He is and what He has done.
- We proclaim His truths and we celebrate Him.
This week, as we continue in practicing these spiritual disciplines of fasting, of remembering what He has done by being in the stillness, of thanking Him and proclaiming His promises, I want you to ruminate on this truth: that God desires your whole heart before anything else.
And in this lifelong journey toward the Father, let’s remember that we’re in this for love.
That we were made for love and to love.
We’re not checking things off a list and God is not a disappointed finger.
He is our loving Father, and He delights in our worship and devotion, no matter how seemingly small or quiet. If He has our heart, He is pleased even as we stumble along the way.
Let’s pray: “Father, You have my whole heart. I want to bring You joy.”
For parents, a prayer of blessing for your child.
“Son, daughter, may you come to see that God delights in you.”
Amen.
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