I guess I’m circling around worship a lot lately, but in all honesty, is there any other more noble subject?
I feel like I’m in a season of resurrecting my heart of worship, bit by bit. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been worshiping all these years, but a part of my heart has held wounds that only time and space have brought healing.
Each of us has different giftings, and in those places we are often attacked most fiercely. Worship has been that for me. I bring God my heart and worship His face, yet it is by far, the greatest place of fierce attack against me. It’s baffling. But not surprising.
So, I rise again and worship. It’s never been about me. It’s about the One I love, and He is worthy.
Worthy of all the heart wrestling. Worthy of the abandonment of reputation. Worthy of the rejection I’ve felt from people. Worthy of my being misunderstood. Worthy of the silent years, where worship bloomed in my heart. Worthy of the years of shouting praise from the top seats in a balcony of a church, because I was in so much pain…that yelling worship was my best offering.
In each and every season, I worship. I bring the purest gift I can.
One thing I’ve learned from living and observing others…the area of fiercest attack in our lives is often the area that God is using those attacks to give a strength and authority to us that nothing and nobody can take away, once we’ve endured.
A voice unleashed. Not because I’m great, but because He is great. Not because I’m talented, but because He’s chosen to anoint the sounds I release. I walk under His yoke in this place. I have nothing that He has not given.
What area of your life is like this?
Whatever it is, I encourage you to lean into it. Find Him in the middle of it and decide to follow Him through any and all discomfort associated with it.
We Americans must become much more comfortable with that which makes us uncomfortable. We have grown so accustomed with pretense that we are often offended by that which is true, pure, and authentic. Messy. Life is messy. People are messy. When we all bring ourselves into alignment with the authority of God, we begin to untangle.
I dream of a church that finds abandon. Abandon to Holy Spirit. Freedom. Allowing for the messy to come and be cleaned. I long for God’s church to arise.
What will it look like?
“They will be My people, and I will be their God. And I will give them one heart and one purpose: to worship Me forever, for their own good and for the good of all their descendants. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good for them. I will put a desire in their hearts to worship Me, and they will never leave Me. I will find joy doing good for them and will faithfully and wholeheartedly replant them in this land.” Jeremiah 32:38-41
365 Days in the Presence 