I have always been a fan of music and music has always been a big part of my life. I remember going with my mom to various churches when I was young and I would listen to her play guitar and sing. And I also remember watching my dad play bass guitar in church with the worship band. I really think that they, along with my pastor and his wife, and some other very key people, are the reasons why music is so dear to me. I started playing drums when I was 11 in the band at my middle school and at the same time, my mom was teaching me how to play acoustic guitar. Later on, my pastor took the time to teach me how to play the bass guitar. My father was a decent bass guitarist, but my pastor was very good. He was able to do the runs and licks that I loved to hear.
As I developed as a musician, I started straying from God and I picked up electric guitar. During this time, I learned music from artist that I always said I would not listen to. I allowed things to enter into my heart and my head through music. It bread desires and hungers that were not of God.
And that is what I want to mention in this post. You see, music holds a very strategic place in the church. Saul would call upon David when he felt the evil spirits rising against him. And when David sang, the spirits would leave Saul. But today, I wonder if the evil spirits would leave when we worship. A lot of churches are straying from true worship, and I am not referencing a certain genre as being the cause. But I feel it’s the act. You see, worship is an intimate expression to God from you. It is reverence and honor that we pay to Him.
I think we have lost what the true meaning of worship is somewhere between the stage lighting and the loud systems. And please don’t get me wrong, I love those too, I believe they have their place. But nothing should ever take the focus of God when we worship. I recently attended a worship service at another church and as the worship team played, the person I was with talked on and on about how great the guitarist was, and how great the drummer was, but I never heard how great our God was. And that bothers me. Churches have lost what worship is all about. They’ve forgotten how worship fits into the church. We’ve replaced the Word of God with a quick Bible study so that we can have 45 minutes to 1 hour of worship music. And all the while, most of the congregants are not truly worshipping God.
My question is this, Have we forgotten what true worship is? Have we replaced the presence of God with hype and energy? Where is the worship that changes souls? Where is the worship that causes people to weap in the presence of God? Where is the worship that brings forth the annointing of God?
God is moving across this nation, and lives are being saved. I praise God for that. But as worshippers, we should always come to the throne not asking what we can get from God but how we can honor Him more through our worship. That is the focus. That is the reason we worship. That is what true worship is all about. It’s about worshipping God with every fiber of our being and knowing that we praised Him with everything that we had in us. God takes pleasure when worship Him with all hearts.
I ask that we look at what we are doing. Look at the means that we do things. Look at the way we carry about worship. And make sure that the next time that we step onto a stage to lead worship or enter into a service to worship, that we make it all about God and not about us.