8 At that time the Lord separated the tribe of Levi, to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to minister unto him, and to bless in his name, unto this day.
Deuteronomy 10:8
Here’s a question. What constitutes a successful time of prayer or worship? This goes for inside and outside of the church, corporate, or one on one with Yahweh. Is it to help us feel His presence? To connect people with God if we are leading? To seek out and receive all the goodness of our amazing God who loves to meet with us, or is it something different?
I am beginning to understand that worship and prayer are places to minister to the Lord. However He wants to use that time to minister to me or anyone around me is His business but mine is to give Him something. This might not be groundbreaking to you, but it is to me. Allow me to explain further.
I think the ways I can get off in my worship are threefold.
#1. I am just plain selfish.
The first one is very American, so hold on to your hats! I want, want, want, want. I deserve, deserve, deserve, deserve. I am a child of God and I know He loves me so desperately so it’s a very short step from focusing on God to focusing on the benefits that I receive when I worship and pray. I feel His presence, I love music, and it makes my day better. He comforts me and restores me. He speaks to me and guides me. He pours into me almost every darn time I make a few minutes for Him that it’s hard not to love these times.
I want to write and sing songs about the things that He gives me and who He made me to be. So many good gifts from God and I want to talk about them all. When I pray I want to give thanks because my focus is all the stuff I get from this amazing relationship. I go straight from thanksgiving to asking and I am proud that I made time for thanksgiving at all. I walk away feeling better and all we have talked about is the stuff He gave me and the stuff He is going to give me in the future.
#2. I am focused on others because God made me to love on those around me.
God made me pastoral. God was too wise to let me lead worship with my focus struggles but often in worship, I am thinking about blessing others with prayer and encouragement. I want God to use me to minister to those around me and am focused on asking God for more and more of His presence for their sake. Sometimes I use a whole song or time of prayer asking for an increase or blessing that will be received by everyone and waiting to see if He does it.
I get alone with Jesus and while singing and playing the piano I envision performing and blessing people or how I will recommend this song to someone so that God can speak through it. In prayer, I go straight from thanking Him for what He has done for those around me, sometimes through me, to asking Him to do more stuff for them.
#3. I am so blown away by God’s splendor that I don’t believe He can get anything that He would enjoy from me.
He’s amazing! The way He moves and shows His love for me is incredible. Being close to the Almighty, the Beginning and End is an unmatched experience. Sometimes in a moment of prayer, He changes a whole mindset for me, or erases a trauma or hurt that I never thought would leave. He is healer, provider, lover, counselor, perfect, holy God. I can’t believe He chose me, and I am overwhelmed by His goodness, mercy, and grace. What could I possibly give back?
I spend my time in worship and prayer on my face asking for mercy and thanking Him that He would choose such a pitiful wretch like me. I tell Him I love Him because telling the truth is important and I am supposed to love Him. Of course I do! Who couldn’t love someone who poured out so much love on me? We are unevenly matched, not just in holiness and power but in the ability to move each other. It’s one-sided and we are powerless to do anything but receive love from Him.
Look
I get it! There is some truth to all these ideas. God loves me and wants to talk about me too. He wants the credit for the gifts He has given me. God wants me to minister to others and use me as His hands and feet. We just saw in Deuteronomy that blessing in God’s name was one of the tasks given to the priests. God wants to personally bless me with His presence, and He is better at everything including being a wonderful lover of my soul.
Yet again, I propose my argument. What if the main point of worship and prayer is to minister to God? He should not only be the one we concentrate on when we sing but He should get something out of it. How do we make Him the focus and the recipient of all the glory? Just Him, first and foremost. What songs does He want to hear and when does He want to hear them? What does He want to talk about in prayer?
What does He like better? Thanksgiving or praise? He has so many amazing qualities that have very little to do with all the stuff we receive from Him or could receive from Him. I am not saying don’t be thankful. What a dangerous idea it would be to not give God credit for all His love, gifts, and mercy, I just wonder if we could do a whole week of praising Him for His attributes without us creeping in. How about a day? An hour?
What do we want to sing and talk about? Does it always matter? Maybe not. Maybe God is the actual center of the universe so we should just focus on Him. I am not the first person to be corrected on this and I won’t be the last. He took me out of my selfish, human-focused worship (and He will probably have to do it again!) and is showing me that He loves it when I sing to Him or speak to Him.
It does something for Him! He loves my voice, my heart, and my closeness. He made me for Him, not the other way around. I am working on making my home a resting place for Him. It’s crazy that He wants to be with me and that I can move His heart!
“Come on God, come rest here on me. I will move more carefully so that you are comfortable here. I will sing to You, think about You, speak to You, and praise You, and if You want to talk about something else just let me know. In the meantime, I’ll be blessing you the best that I can”
For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.
Colossians 1:16
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