³⁴ But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. ³⁵ Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”

³⁷ Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and great commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

MATTHEW 22: 34-40

Hang all the Law & Prophets? What does that mean? That statement tells me that everything God ever spoke through all the Patriarchs and the Prophets from Genesis to Revelations; this one command is the totality of them all!

Seeing worship in this light, reveals a more profound meaning. If we are looking at the practice, to love God and others, as the totality of God’s heart and command throughout the history of man, then surely there is more to this “worship thing” than singing. Don’t misunderstand me, God takes great joy in our singing and praising him in music, this is evident throughout scripture. However, it is not the do all and be all of our worship of God.

When we focus on music as the essence of worship, I believe that we cheapen it and relegate it to singing, even if in that singing we are professing our love and adoration to God. Our love and adoration to God must amount to more that lip service, but actual service to God and mankind whom He has created and commanded us to love.

God cared enough about me and my children to confront me about my behavior, pinpoint what was going on and bring healing to me and my family.

When God began teaching me about true worship many years ago, He confronted me with the ways I was treating my children. I was deeply involved in the music ministry of my church, even leading, but at home I was struggling to raise my children in the midst of some very stressful times and I found myself yelling a lot and flying into rages. Yes, this WAS me! I’m ashamed of this part of my life, and God has done tremendous healing in my family since then, but I share this part of my story, to illustrate a point. God cared enough about me and my children to confront me about my behavior, pinpoint what was going on and bring healing to me and my family.

I was so broken over my behavior and committed my heart to God to heal me and He has been faithful to do just that. I learned then, that my worship of God wasn’t about a platform, singing in front of people and being a leader, as a matter of fact, that part of my life was less important to God than how I loved my family. He showed me that loving them well and conducting myself with integrity and sincerity toward Him and what He spoke to my heart, was more worship to Him than all the songs I could ever write or sing to Him.

What then shall we do?

One pivotal season in my worship education came when I was reading Luke chapter 3. John the Baptist was preaching the baptism of repentance and Luke said about him that he was “the voice of one crying in the wilderness” as Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah 40:3, who was to prepare the way for Jesus. Hear the words John says to the crowd in Luke 3:7-14:

⁷ Then he said to the multitudes that came out to be baptized by him, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? ⁸ Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. ⁹ And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

¹⁰ So the people asked him, saying, “What shall we do then?”

¹¹ He answered and said to them, “He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise.”

¹² Then tax collectors also came to be baptized, and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?”

¹³ And he said to them, “Collect no more than what is appointed for you.”

¹⁴ Likewise the soldiers asked him, saying, “And what shall we do?”

So he said to them, “Do not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely, and be content with your wages.”

LUKE 3:7-14 [EMPHASIS ADDED]

We can see from this account in scripture, that God is more interested in how we treat one another than our empty spiritual practices. Of course, spiritual practices have merit, but not if heart change doesn’t result. Through all those practices, must emerge a heart of love, obedience to God’s Word and kindness and sincerity toward others.

When I see worship in this context, it takes on a richness and depth that singing alone could never communicate to God.

We know we can “appear” to worship before others and it happens all the time. But we cannot pass off “appearances” to God. He knows our hearts AND our intentions thereof. When we understand that God sees all and knows all and we are never hidden from His sight, nor our heart motives, life takes on a deeper essence of worship. Worship that loves God with all areas of our lives and loves others with sincerity of heart and motive.

When I see worship in this context, it takes on a richness and depth that singing alone could never communicate to God.

Let Christ be glorified in all!

Crisie