This devotion is part of a series of devotions on how to grow in your walk with God. If you have not already done so, you may find it helpful to read the introductory devotion, Growing in God: Mommy Edition.
Today is my daughter Ellie’s 8th birthday. Her slumber party (or, as my mom used to call them, “slumberless” party) ended yesterday morning. Today, after we all ate breakfast, I presented her gifts to her.
There was one large bag with several related gifts inside—a Nintendo DSLite and accessories. After many hours of searching, I had found an incredible deal on eBay that put this gift within our financial reach. Ellie had wanted a DS for more than a year, and at 8 years old, wanting something more than a year is a long time. I couldn’t wait to see the look on her face when she opened her gift.
Ellie took the tissue paper out of the bag and drew out the small, purse-like object (it was the carrying case). She was being very polite, but I could see she thought it was a purse (which I knew she wouldn’t want), and was therefore disappointed. “Open it,” I said.
Ellie unzipped the case. She pushed the extra plastic shell aside, not realizing what it was. Then she saw the slim, pink, metallic rectangle. Her jaw dropped open and her eyes went wide. For five full seconds, she stood staring in disbelief. Then she shrieked, “It’s a DS!”
It’s to those few seconds between when Ellie realized what her gift was and when she was able to speak that I want to direct our attention, for they are a perfect illustration of what we’re going to talk about today.
For those brief moments of time, Ellie was breathless with awe, wonder, and joy. She was amazed. Her mind and heart were full. For her, mere words were inadequate to the immensity of the moment.
That, my friends, is the kind of reaction we will have when we are truly worshipping God.
Our mind and heart will be full, and we may or may not even use words. If we do, we’ll have a sense of how inadequate they are to express the fullness of God’s glory. We’ll be consumed in the awe and wonder of His majesty and the immensity of His greatness.
When was the last time you and I worshipped like that? If we can’t remember, it’s been too long.
We desperately need to connect with God spirit-to-Spirit in worship on a regular basis. We all know that. But actually doing it can be hard. We don’t really know what that means, or how to make time to do it. So today, we’ll talk those things: what true worship looks like, and how we can make sure it happens.
First, let’s talk about what true worship isn’t. It isn’t necessarily a physical posture, a particular time of day, a certain activity we do during worship, or a formula we follow. All those things are merely details that should be an outer expression of the worship taking place in our hearts. They are not the worship itself. In the heart is where our worship happens.
So if worship can’t be determined by something visible, what does it look like? What’s involved? The answer may at first be frustrating. It will then be freeing. The answer is that there’s no one right answer.
I once heard worship defined as “our response…to God for who He is and what He has done”. That is what worship is—not a particular emotion or warm, fuzzy feeling. In fact, if we make the mistake of thinking that our worship will always have a certain emotional quality or intensity, we’re setting ourselves up for discouragement. There may or may not be an emotional intensity to our worship. Sometimes there will be; sometimes there won’t. That’s okay. Just because we haven’t felt a certain way doesn’t mean we haven’t worshipped. If we have presented ourselves before God with a right heart and responded to “who He is and what He has done”, we have worshipped. God will teach us more about worshipping as we go along. He may sometimes establish an emotional connection with us so deep it leaves us breathless; He may at other times seem more distant, allowing us to worship in truth rather than “in emotion”. It’s up to Him. Whatever way He chooses is right, and we shouldn’t try to make it be something else.
Second, let’s talk about how to make time for worship. After all, we’re moms. Our schedules are sometimes busy, sometimes crazy, and often unpredictable. The good news is that even the busiest mom has time for worship. Why? Because we can worship in the midst of our everyday activities. Too often, we think we have to get our activities out of the way so we can have time to connect with God. But the reality is that God wants to connect with us in the midst of our activities. Yes, we should do our best to make room for one-on-One time with Him. But we also need to learn to worship in the midst of everything that surrounds us.
One way to do this is to learn to hear the holy—His voice—in the midst of the mundane. Just as Jesus often used ordinary things like harvests, seeds, and sheep to speak to His listeners, so God today uses the ordinary stuff of our lives like laundry, diapers, and dishes to communicate His truth to us. If we wait until the house is calm and quiet to listen for God’s voice, we’re cutting Him out of a huge portion of our day. He wants to communicate with us all day long. If we don’t listen all day long, we’re missing out.
A second way to worship in the midst of it all is to offer our work as service to God. After all, Jesus said that whatever we do for the least of these, we do for Him. So if we’re doing laundry, we can stand there sorting colors and pray, “Jesus, I’m offering this service to You. You ask us to worship You with all we have, and right now, what I have is laundry. So I offer it to You from a willing heart.” See? We’ve worshipped.
A third way to worship is to cultivate a heart attitude of listening. Probably the biggest chunk of our day is spent not really thinking about God. The second largest amount of time (though it’s a far smaller amount) is usually spent talking to God. In far distant third, if we do it at all, is the time we spend listening to God. I know it’s hard to listen without becoming distracted. But we don’t necessarily have to stay quiet and focused for long blocks of time. In fact, God will sometimes direct our wandering thoughts to areas He wants us to meditate on before Him or pray about. And if we practice focusing on Him, we’ll get better at doing it more frequently and for longer periods of time when necessary.
Worship is not complicated. At least it doesn’t have to be. All we need to do is present ourselves before God and respond to Him. If you don’t know whether to start your worship time by praying, reading your Bible, remaining silent, or some other activity, ask Him. He’ll tell you. Remember that the main thing is not what you do, but the fact that you are offering God your heart. You can do that anytime and anywhere. Because wherever, whenever you are, He’ll find you and meet you. And worship will happen.
Psalm 96:9—Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth!