Is Worship Worth It?

There are a lot of definitions of “worship” out there. I guess my personal definition would be that worship is anything we do in the spirit of gratitude and humility with the sole focus and intent on bringing glory to God. I worship God when I’m with other believers in the context of church, but I’ve also worshiped God when I’m gardening. Or doing housework. Or spending time with my family. Or driving around doing errands. I’m even worshiping as I pull my thoughts together for this post. To some people, the word “worship” may be synonymous with “boredom”. That’s really unfortunate because true worship is anything but boring. A few months ago I had what you may call a personal “epiphany” with regard to worship. Now, I hesitate to write about this because to some of my readers it may be an obvious thought, which makes me feel a little silly. To other readers, this may be so foreign that I’ll completely lose you. But maybe this is for someone out there. It’s hard to put into words…

At my church during Sunday morning worship, I was singing the praise and worship songs and, as per my usual, was touched and humbled to the point of tears. (I rarely get through worship without tears.) But in the midst of my usual, something unusual happened. The song was “Holy Forever” by Chris Tomlin and at one point the words are, “…and the angels cry, ‘Holy!’ All creation cries, ‘Holy!…” At this point, I saw in my mind the very heavens opening and pictured this gathering of fellow worshipers that I was with joining the angels and all those who have gone before us, giving our all in humble worship to the King of Kings, the Lamb who was slain–the only One who is worthy. It’s as if my worship tore open the veil between my earthly life and my eternal home. And, friends, I cannot get the image out of my mind. Whenever I spend time with the Lord now, I relive this experience and it has brought new meaning and life to my personal walk with the Lord.

Revelation chapter 4 refers to the worship that takes place in heaven with phrases like, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.” (v. 8) and “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power…” (v. 11) The focus is on God alone. I believe that when we truly pour out our hearts in worship, all our earthly struggles, worries and stresses fade away in the presence of a Holy God. Psalm 96:9 tells us to “Worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness.” I love that word “splendor”. It’s like experiencing pure joy and completeness in the presence of such magnificence. Experiencing the splendor of true worship minimizes life here on earth. There have been times when I leave worship to begin my duties for the day and my mind starts to search for that thing that I was worried about before. And, of course, it is readily available to me. Time to take those thoughts captive and give them back to Jesus! I need to keep practicing a heart and mind of worship in all I do.

My hope is that these words are thought-provoking if nothing else. And if you are newer in a consistent walk with Jesus, or if you don’t know him personally, this may all seem very odd. If that’s the case, I sure hope you’ll consider the possibility of what a close relationship with the One who created you could mean. It’s only through belief in His Son Jesus Christ and knowing him more and more. So, in answer to the question in my title, I say a resounding YES! Worship is totally worth it. It changes my focus and gives honor to the One who truly deserves my all. “So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.” (2 Corinthians 4:18 NLT)