Worship Friday 7-31-2009

It starts in the mind...

Okay, so here we are and its another Worship Friday. After having my world rocked at the National Worship Leader Conference in Overland Park last week, I have spent a lot of time trying to sort out what really happened. I will probably never fully figure it out, but even my voice is different in the way I sing. I have been spending time meditating on what worship really is. In the church I attend, (and I did not “grow up” in church!) for years “Praise” and “Worship” were used almost interchangeably. I don’t want to create a doctrinal thesis on the definitions for each, and I spent some time on my thoughts on that difference in my last post. In short, worship is an expression of mindset; an expression of an attitude, that makes real praise possible and meaningful. A recognition that God is “WORTHY” and truly deserves our praise.

God does not force us to love him, or even to get saved. We are the ones who choose what we love. There is no involuntary “falling” in love. It is always a choice. God made it that way on purpose. The apostle Paul said in Romans 6:16 “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” Before we were saved, we were servants of sin unto death by default, but once saved, we no longer are required to serve sin (though we still choose to do so sometimes). Verse 18-19 “Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.” The old King James version uses “members” to refer to any part of your body, including your mind. In order to yield ANY of your members, can we not agree that you first have to gain a certain level of control of them? And as the mind controls the rest of the body, once you gain control of the head, you get the whole package. This is soberness. If you are a believer, your ‘new man’ can rule, and you can then cast down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bring into captivity EVERY THOUGHT to the obedience of Christ.

To tie it all together, as I reflected on the National Worship Leader Conference, I realized that I can yield my mind, the talents He has given to me, completely to Him. Sounds pretty simple, but I challenge you to meditate on this, and see if indeed your mind, your heart, your talents and your time are yielded to Him and his plan for your life. Most of you reading this do not even really know what it is God wants you to do. For those of you that do, what are the obstacles holding you back? What is keeping you from fulfilling that which God showed you at the NWLC? Perhaps we can learn from each other. I know what is holding me back, and its me. I saw that more clearly than ever before last week.