I love the Lord.
That statement has become more and more true since I first came to accept Jesus into my heart. I especially love to express my love for the Lord through music. I grew up thinking that worship was just that: singing praises to the Lord. I have come to understand that’s not entirely true. Worship is the expression of our love for God, not the channel we use to portray it. It can take many forms.
I grew up kind of afraid to really let loose in worship. I felt like public displays of affection to the Lord made me a weirdo. I didn’t want people to judge me or tell me that my relationship with the Lord was flawed because of my worship style. I tried so hard to make sure I was always worshiping the Lord “properly,” never drawing attention to myself. So any form of worship that was radical or “different” didn’t just feel weird; it felt wrong.
That is, until training camp!
Going into training camp, I was really wanting to grow in “freedom of expression” in worship. By this point in my walk with Christ, I felt that something was lacking in my worship, but I wasn’t sure what. Thank goodness the Lord still answers prayers, because He completely exceeded my expectations and gave me something I both wanted and needed: complete freedom in worship!
From the very first “worship service” we had, I was determined to express myself to the Father however I felt led. I wasn’t going to care at all about how silly I looked or what people thought about me. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks! We worship for an audience of One! So if I felt like raising my hands, I would raise them! If I wanted to jump, I would jump. Nothing was off the table anymore! Jesus radically expressed His love for us by dying for us. The LEAST we could do is raise a hand of praise.
One of the biggest breakthroughs I had concerning worship happened the second or third day of training camp. I was praising the Lord when I felt deep within me a strong desire to stomp around. At one point, I felt like I could almost hear my feet crying out to me, “Hey! WE want to worship, too!” At that moment, something in me flickered on and I began to worship with reckless abandon. After all, God gave me more than just a voice! I’m going to use my whole body to praise Him!
That makes me think a lot about how some of the Psalms talk about all nature praising the Lord. I used to meditate on that thought a lot in college. At one point, while I was taking a stroll around my college campus, I felt like I could hear the trees around me singing a song of praise to their Creator. And then, it dawned on me. Even if it doesn’t have an audible voice, all of creation is ALWAYS praising the Lord. Every created thing praises Him with their own inaudible qualities like shape, color, and texture. They praise Him by simply BEING what the Lord called them to be.
If you want to take it a step further, all matter also has the potential for sound. When an object is struck, it creates a some sort of vibration. When our brains process these waves, we hear sound. And every sound is unique, too! The pitch and timbre can change based on the object and how other objects interact with it. When two objects interact, they create harmony.
Here’s a more concrete example. A rock may not have an actual voice of it’s own, but when you throw a rock into another rock, their voices can be heard pretty clearly. When you pass by a stream, you hear the water splashing against the rocks in harmony. The pitter patter of my fingers typing out this sentence, the splash of rain hitting the window to my room, the gentle roar of the heater powering through the whole house… ALL OF THAT is God’s creation praising the Him through whatever means available.
You may look at some of those examples and think, “But Andrew, God didn’t physically make the computer that you are typing on. Or the windows. Or the heater! These are all human inventions.” Right, but even human invention doesn’t change the very rules of sound that all of these objects obey. God decided what sound all of these things would have before man even came up with the idea to create them. Still, how cool is it that human invention can take what God has already made and repurpose it? We are allowed into the creative narrative! We have the potential to create SYMPHONIES, intentionally or otherwise!
All of creation understands this one fundamental concept: worshiping the Creator is all about expressing the qualities that He created you with. Don’t have a voice? Worship with what you do have!
Romans 12:1 (CSB) – Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship.
This is a verse that the Lord has been highlighting to me a lot lately. I feel like it speaks into the very essence of what I learned about worship at training camp! Presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice that is pleasing to the Lord is TRUE, SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. So what exactly does it mean to offer your body as a living sacrifice to Him? Giving Him your everything (your gifts, your possessions, your time, etc.).
Fun thought: giving Him your gifts does not necessarily mean you will use them at all! I know it sounds crazy, but think about what it means to sacrifice your gift for the Lord’s sake. Like my singing voice for example! I love to sing and would love to do it all the time. In offering up this gift to the Lord, I’m saying, “God. This gift is yours. If you want me to use it for you, I will. If you don’t want me to use it, I won’t. I am your instrument, so I have no voice unless You interact with me.”
Lord, thank you for creating worship. I know you don’t require it to survive. You are God after all, and you don’t rely on me to worship You. But I rely on my ability to worship You. I need it. Thank you for giving me the greatest gift of all: the gift of being able to worship You!
In all things, be blessed!
AG
