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WHY WORSHIPPING GOD EVEN WHEN YOU DON’T “FEEL LIKE IT” MATTERS
Kris Vallotton
January 19, 2018
Have you ever been in a church service and just not felt the music when the worship band gets up and plays? Maybe it’s because you’re distracted by the list of burdens you brought in with you, or maybe you’re not emotionally connecting. Perhaps you’re in the thick of a wilderness season and simply can’t muster up the passion to authentically lift your hands in worship. We’ve all been there, and I understand the temptation to just disengage. Maybe you’ll even feel like a hypocrite if you “put on a show” without authentically “feeling it.”
Today I want to tell you why it’s in those moments, and really in any moment of discouragement, that the best thing you can do is to get those hands up and worship God.
Let’s take a look at this very old Flashback Friday video for why it’s so important (and I believe a key for breakthrough):
In a nutshell:
• Exodus 19:5-6 "Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation…’"
• God was saying He wanted the whole kingdom to be priests. He told Moses to go down and tell the people that if they obeyed His voice, they would be His own possession, a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.
• The Israelites’ response to this invitation was to stand at a distance from God’s presence. They decided to choose relationship with Moses, instead of having relationship with God. (Exodus 20) The Lord was asking them to be something, but they responded with wanting to do something.
• 1 Peter 2:9 says, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” Peter shows us that this is now who we are. We can be without having to first do.
• One dimension to being a royal priesthood is worship.
• We were created to be worshippers, not to just do worship.
• The devil wanted to be worshipped. When you give what the devil wants to God instead, it is warfare. The most powerful warfare
in the world is worshipping God.
• Every time the devil tells me who I am, I tell him who God is. I say how worthy, powerful, almighty our God is!
• God is pleased when you have expressions of worship that don’t feel emotionally good. What some would call hypocritical, God calls sacrifice.
• When you go to a church service and lift up your hands even when you don’t feel like it, it becomes a sacrifice of praise.
• I don’t like to reduce worship down to something that happens when the music starts because worship isn’t something you do, it’s something you are.
• Regardless of what your job is, if you do it as unto the Lord, it is worship. The noise of flipping a burger, or the sound of a mother comforting her children, could be just as beautiful as a guitar solo or a voice leading a chorus. God loves it all as worship.
WHAT IS YOUR WORSHIP?
If you’re in a hard place right now then I encourage you to pull up a worship song on your phone, or on YouTube. Lift those hands, declare who God is, how glorious He is, and worship Him with everything you’ve got (even if all that is today is to lay on your face in surrender.)
Then I want to challenge you with this thought: If being a worshipper is who you are, not just something you do, then how can you approach your whole life as a sacrifice of praise unto God? What sound are you bringing before Him? Remember, it’s all a powerful act of warfare, and it’s all beautiful to Him. I’d love to hear what you think about this in the comments!
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