Worshipping as Christian believers is one of the most important things we do, both individually and corporately.
Let me give you 5 quick reasons to worship:
1. It reminds us of what we already believe.
It reminds us that we have pledged allegiance to one Redeemer and God, through Jesus Christ. If “Christians need to be reminded more than they need to be instructed” (C.S. Lewis), than worship is perhaps the greatest reminder for our hearts to be true to what we have already chosen.
2. It softens our hearts towards God.
Most of the greatest truths I have found in God’s Word, and most of the deepest things He has spoken to me have come during or directly after a time of worship. It is rare that I deeply feel God’s presence when my heart has become hard through difficult relational struggles or due to handling the “cares of this life”. Worship helps us press in to have the kind of heart we have wanted all along.
3. It softens our hearts towards others.
Many times when I am in corporate worship, I am reminded of Jesus’ exhortation to us to in Matthew 5 to not even enter in to worship until we have made things right with others. Is there someone I need to forgive? Is there someone I need to make things right with? It’s easy to privatize our faith and think only of our own needs and emotional challenges, and worship calls us to go beyond ourselves.
4. It affirms our participation in something larger than ourselves.
“Worship wars” in churches are a well-known “thing” in many contemporary congregations (unless you’re non-churched or new to Christianity, and then you don’t care and wonder what the fuss is all about). Regardless of style, Jesus has called us to be a part of His thing, not ours, and to participate in something beyond individualized preferences that our modern and convenience-driven world sells us. Singing and worshiping with others is one of the most powerful and life-affirming statements we can make that we belong to something bigger than ourselves and even our own local church—we belong to Jesus’ universal body!
5. It opens up non-believers to the truth of the Gospel.
I can’t tell you how many stories I get to hear about non-Christians or unchurched people who have come to Mosaic and have had encounters with God because of the power of, not merely the musicians and singers, but the power of the love and enthusiasm they witness coming out of you and me and us. They cry, they weep, they are moved, they don’t know what to do with what they experience. All they know is that they were unprepared for what just happened and they have to decide what to do with “all of that.” In short, our worship is evangelistic.
Let me encourage and exhort you to not just come, not even just sing, but to worship this Sunday—to pour our your heart and emotions and all you have before our great King, in gratitude for his goodness and faithfulness and beauty!
With much love,
Morgan