WHEN WORSHIP IS A ‘10’

How many different ways are there to worship God? Probably as many ways as there are people who worship him, because worship is primarily a relationship shaped by who we are. Worship is the shape of your life lived in awareness of God. It is uniquely your – a reflection of your personality, your gifts, your needs, and your passions. Your worship has your own stamp on it.

We are so used to thinking of worship as a corporate, unified thing that we reduce it to a shared experience of songs, liturgies, and orderly services. This, of course, is a part of worship, but it is not the whole thing. It isn’t even the half of it.

Worship is ultimately a state of mind. In its broadest sense, it is the totality of our relationship with God. It involves talking to him, listening for him, and looking for him behind the scenes of things. It is being aware of his presence and acknowledging and evaluating his purposes in all we do. It is chatting with him – reacting to the world around us and imagining his reaction. It is getting familiar with him through his Word so that we begin to know how he thinks and feels about things. It is, in its simplest form, a God consciousness that permeates everything we do.

In an interview once, a pastor asked me to put my relationship with God on a scale of one to 10 – 10 being warm, close, and in fellowship. I thought about the apparent arrogance of putting this at a 10, but then I realized 10 was the right answer, not because I had arrived at some superior spiritual status that warrants it, but because I live a life of such quiet desperation that I am constantly in relationship with God out of necessity. I am conscious of God all the time because I have to be or I fly apart at the center. I have nothing to hold onto without him. I know myself well enough to know that if I am not living my relationship with God at a “10,” I am living in some form of lie or denial. My need for him is the bedrock truth of the matter.

If some of you find this alarming, then read Psalms, because I have just described the essence of David’s sentiment as expressed in his prayers and poems. Over and over again, his soul cries out to God, he is in a dry and thirsty land, he waits patiently for the Lord, and the Lord hears him and brings him comfort.

You don’t have to be perfect to be a “10” in your relationship with God, holding on for dear life will also do the trick.