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I have written a blog or two in the past addressing the issue of worship and how the effectiveness of it depends on our motivations. Motivations, for instance, explain how two people can be sitting in the same worship service where only one of them gets anything out of it.
In Erwin McManus' book, The Barbarian Way, he addresses two motivations, both of which look the same outwardly, but are drastically different from each other internally:
"How many stories do we need of children who grow up in church being forced to act like Christians rather than being won to the heart of God? Both are an effort to shape the character of our children. The first is an external force; the latter an internal force. The civilized Christian does what is right out of fear; the barbarian does what is right out of love. The Christian civilization is held together by rules and rituals; the barbarian revolt is fueled by the passion of God and guided by the mission of God."
Just to explain; within McManus' book, he is making the point that Christianity (for most) has become civilized (not in the good sense of the word) to the point that it has lost its original untamed faith which is wild and barbaric (in a good sense). The back cover of the book includes these words:
"If He [Jesus] chose the way of the cross, where would He hesitate leading us"..."Jesus never made a pristine call to a proper and safe religion. Jesus beckons His followers to a path that is far from the easy road. It is a path filled with adventure, uncertainty, and unlimited possibilities - the only path that can fulfill the deepest longings and desires of your heart."
While most of us would jump at the opportunity to live a more adventurous Christian life, it can still be scary. It is human nature to choose the path of least resistance, but God is calling us higher. While this all sounds great, the question that arises in many, and has arisen in me is, "but how do I do this? How do I get past this fear?" The answer is worship.
One of my duties at church is to do the live announcements every Sunday morning. A couple of Saturday nights ago, I had started the process of preparing the announcements for the next morning when I felt like I needed to include an encouragement for our people to press in to the presence of God.
My point was that, you may want to press in but don't know how. You may wonder why you don't feel the presence of God that others say they're experiencing, and feel overwhelmed as to how to have the same experience. What I encouraged them with was an analogy from the area of fitness.
Like working out; you blast it really hard one day, only to look in the mirror the next day and wonder why your muscles aren't any bigger. You feel the pain of having worked out, but with no visible results. That isn't the time to quit, because over time, as you stick with the habit, you begin to notice an increase in your strength. What seemed so difficult before is no longer an issue, and now it's time to move on to the next challenge.
That brings me to the title of this blog. There's a song we sing at church occasionally, titled "The More I Seek You." In it is reflected the thought behind James 4:7-8a which reads, "So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come close to God, and God will come close to you" (emphasis mine). The lyrics that make the whole point here read, "The more I seek you, the more I find you. The more I find you, the more I love you."
Like the working out analogy, the more we come to God, the stronger we get... then we begin to notice that the weight that was once so heavy upon us isn't so heavy anymore. The trick is; we must stay consistent. Just start by humbling yourself before Him, letting Him know that you know He is God and that you can't make it without Him. Express your gratitude for what He has done for you and ask Him to help you to know how to better worship Him. It's not about having the perfect approach; it's about your heart... your motivations.
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perry meade
