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Worship

We spent a wonderful time at a retreat this weekend and I think that the general agreement was that it was possibly one of the best yet. We started to think about why this was, why did we feel that this retreat felt different than all the others we had been on as a college and careers group? We realized one thing, it was the sense of community, the sense that we were all there worshiping the same God and that brought us all together. We were able to share and interact with each other in a way that we hadn't really before. It was revolutionary in a very quiet way. But the impact was felt.
I've been thinking a lot about worship lately, especially as Rob and I have been reading a one year devotional called Worship the King by Chris Tiegreen. I've begun to think about what worship really is, what it means, what it looks like, and the impact that it can really have on our lives.

I came across this quote today by C.S. Lewis "The most valuable thing the Psalms do for me is to express the same delight in God which made David dance." This just made me smile because my roommate and I were just talking about David the other day and the fact that he worshiped God with pretty wild abandon. Even the times when he is down, and you can see it in the ways that he questions God (Psalm 22), he still ends with praise and worship of God. The Psalms really remind us of praising God in all circumstances.

I know that I'm jumping all over the place but I'm not really quite sure of my thoughts because I haven't quite figured them out myself. This weekend brought me back to the true meaning of worship and how it affects my soul and who I am. It also reminded me that God sees my heart and He knows if I am truly worshiping Him or if my mind is drifting. It reminded me that when we're singing our praise to Him that if how I can best worship Him is to sit and be still then that is what I should do. That is my act of worship. Besides He told us to "Be still and know that I am God."(Psalm 46:10)
So, then in my searching and reading I came across this quote by A. W. Tozer - "Without worship, we go about miserable." And how true is that? To be honest, without true worship I am a lesser form of myself. Without worship I am miserable, because I am not remembering how amazing God is. Worship is acknowledging, to myself and I guess in a sense to God, how great and powerful and mighty He is.

I've just begun thinking about what TRUE worship really is. Any thoughts?

And just to end off on something fairly off topic from what I was just writing about. We're reading this book called 66 Love Letters and it has been the refreshment that my soul has needed. The other day as I was contemplating God's love, and my knowledge of it and my understanding of others love for me I came across this passage in the book. "Love has no meaning unless it remains alive when the one you claim to love seems distant and unresponsive. If you love Me only when I immediately satisfy your desires, your love is merely one more form of self-centeredness." Challenging, but for some reason refreshing and joy-filled. Is my love for God self-centered?

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