In Luke 10:27, Jesus said, “…You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind…” As worship leaders, we know that worship is more than songs, that worship is the right response of our whole lives to God’s revelation of Himself. Over the next four weeks, I will spend some time exploring what it means to worship God with our hearts, souls, strength, and with our minds.
“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
- C.S. Lewis
Life is hard and exhausting. Perhaps this is why we easily set so much of our time and routine on autopilot. The same is true as we gather with the people of God - we know what time to arrive when to sit and stand, when to sing, and when to listen. We can easily go through the motions without having a posture of heart that is open, soft, and responsive to the truths we proclaim as the people of God.
If we are to worship God with our strength, there should be an intensity that we exercise in our response to God that focuses our half-hearted affections. No, our churches don’t need mosh pits for Jesus, but we do need to invite our people to see how their affections have been splintered. In the corporate gathering, we can bless and thank God for being the Giver of every good and perfect gift, while also acknowledging that we are quick to worship created things rather than the Creator (Romans 1:25).
Perhaps one of the ways we need to encourage people to worship God with their strength is to sing loudly. Sing like they believe what they are singing. Sing like they want to believe what they are saying. Sing like they are building up the faith of their brothers and sisters surrounding them in the room - because that is exactly what is happening. We are strengthened, and so is our worship as we gather and respond to the One who is called Almighty.