You are worthy of it all.

Another church service, another worship song. Everyone around me was singing, eyes closed, hands raised.

I tried to do the same, but I just couldn’t seem to bring myself to do so.

I wasn’t having a very good week. Praising God wasn’t something I wanted to do at the moment. I felt like a hypocrite trying to sing words I didn’t really mean.

Then God said to me: “You’re missing the point of worship.”

Worship isn’t about how you feel

We don’t worship just because they’re playing our favourite songs. We don’t worship just because the music sounds good. We don’t worship just because we’ve been having a pretty good week.

Worship isn’t about how we feel. While these things may affect our desire to worship, they don’t make our worship – nor should they break it.

Our worship must be real in our hearts, and at the same time it must be based on a true understanding and perception of our God.

We must understand that the main reason and sole purpose of our worship is to glorify God. Worship isn’t primarily about our response to a circumstance, or what we can gain out of worship. The moment we enter worship with our own agenda is the moment we completely miss the point of worship.

Worship in Spirit and in Truth

The essence of our worship is put plainly in John 4:23-24. Jesus said that true worship is about worshipping in spirit and in truth. Our worship must be real in our hearts, and at the same time it must be based on a true understanding and perception of our God.

When God is all we have left, that is when we will learn that He is all we need.

You can’t have one without the other. Worshipping only the mental grasp of the truth, but devoid of emotion, produces artificial and robotic worshippers. On the other end, worship based on our feelings without being rooted in truth produces a temporal spiritual high and cultivates shallow and superficial worship.

Worship anyway

When your emotions – the way you’re feeling at that very moment – make you hesitant to worship, just worship anyway. Love is an intentional act of obedience. Let the lyrics of the songs minister to you. Let the voice of the church strengthen you. Let God speak to you through the preaching of His word. Let your heart catch up with your head.

Worship isn’t about how we feel. While these things may affect our desire to worship, they don’t make our worship – nor should they break it.

I have realised that nothing beats crying out to God when I least feel like spending time with Him. When God is all we have left, that is when we will learn that He is all we need. That is when we respond to God in reckless abandonment and total dependence.

There is power in the cry of desperation and in persistence, and God sees our heart when we cry out in worship, despite our desire not to. Especially when we desire not to.

He is worthy of it all.