Blasé Pascal, a mathematician and philosopher, is often quoted in saying “There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every person which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator.” Yes! There is a gap in our lives. Isn’t it? There is a void…there is a vacuum. Most of us at one point or the other must have attempted to fill that gap with pleasure. Yet, we realize soon that it was a failed attempt. In his suicide note, a Ph. D scholar from UoH said it all although he missed the reason for that. He said “I see a growing gap between my body and soul.” Here we come to the ultimate question of life: Who or what can elegantly bridge this gap? Only God can bridge this gap through our worship. Yes worship matters! Nothing is more important than worship. It is the ultimate priority.
What is not worship?
Worship is not just something we do on Sunday morning. It is a continual relationship. Worship is not just music. Music can be an instrument for the expression of worship. Worship is not just emotional satisfaction that can be gained through feelings stirred by sentimental music and repetitive lyrics. John MacArthur puts it this way in his book, Worship the Ultimate Priority, “By striving so hard to fulfil human needs, satisfy humandesires, manipulate human emotions, and massage the human ego, the church somehow seems to have lost sight of what worship is supposed to be about.” We often are more concerned about ‘doing’ than ‘being’. True worship is that which translates from just doing to being. By ‘being’ I mean focussing on our personal, intimate relationship with God. As long as we seek worship in external things, our deepest void, vacuum, thirst would never be satisfied.
Worship is…
There was a woman who was rejected by everyone. She was filled with guilt and shame. Her social status wasn’t that great either. Her heart was literally void and hopelessly lost .But Jesus’ willingness to reach out to her deepest questions changed her life forever.Jesus told everything about her. He tells her, “…Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” He desperately wanted that spring of water which she had searched everywhere else. Finally when she had realized that Jesus the Christ is the answer and the bridge to fill the gap in her heart, she believed in him. Here, Jesus himself defines worship as something which is truly spiritual and that which is not bound by time or location (God is Spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth – John 4:24).
William Temple defines worship this way, “Worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by his holiness; the nourishment of mind with his truth; the purifying of imagination by his beauty; the opening of the heart to his love; the surrender of will to his purpose – all this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable.” Worship is our holistic (mind, soul and body) response to God in holiness (Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness – Ps. 29:2).
As followers of Christ, what we are and what we do are our acts of worship to the Lord. Everything is spiritual. There is no such distinction as ‘sacred’ and ‘secular’. If I am a painter, I worship God through my job by doing it to the best of my God-given abilities. If I am a teacher, my teaching is an act of worship to the Lord if I seek his glory in what I do. All that is to say, Worship is a life-long, eternal, continual relationship with God (Don’t take me wrong…I don’t mean “Work is worship”… not at all)
Finally, Paul says in Romans 12:1-2, “Offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God…this is your spiritual act of worship.” Not just a sacrifices but living sacrifices. Continually dying to self and living unto the Lord by being transformed by the renewing of mind. He encourages them to worship God corporately (together) by submitting to his will, by humbling themselves, loving each other with pure love. This is the worship that would please God. Then our songs of worship, our music, our offerings, our sermons would enable us glorify God in true worship.
If worship is an unexciting idea for you, then even heaven will bore you. Even after knowing the Lord personally, after following him for many years, if you are still feeling a deep vacuum in your heart, then probably “worship” is the missing link. You might have a check-list of how much you are doing for the Lord, but what matters for God is how you are related to him! I write this from my own experiences. There are times when I struggle with sin and guilt. But I turn to Jesus Christ, the only hope. His sacrifice on the cross rejuvenates us. His future glory recharges us. My dear brother/sister, he can do the same to you too. The spring of water that he puts in the heart is fulfilling. Only he can give complete joy. This joy is attainable through selfless, self-giving acts of true worship unto our living saviour. Amen! Yes! Worship matters!!!
As the deer pants for the water…So my soul longs after you
You alone are my heart’s desire…And I long to worship you