How do you worship the Lord when you're not really even aware of His presence?
I've found myself asking that a lot lately. That's a hard question to ask when you're spending so much time in the Word, seeking the Lord and His will, and training yourself to discern His truth for your errors. You find a richness of communion with the Lord that helps you both take stock of your blessings with renewed vigor and experience deeper sorrow over your own sin. It's as though God is still speaking through His Word and the Spirit so nicely dovetails your personal circumstances with sentences from all throughout scripture.
I know. Weird, right? But maybe that's just me.
In all of this reading, though, I find that God takes me right where I need to go. The authority of the Word in my life has led me to return my attention to those pockets of practice in worship that I've let slip. One of them is in the worship of singing. I listen to so many sermons and podcasts and debates that change and transform and sharpen my mind, but I have noticed in the past three or so weeks that my attention to worshipping the Lord in music has atrophied. I've become weak in that area.
I've gone soft.
A Commitment to Worship.
That's what I want to do this week. I can let media be a mind-numbing distraction or a call to worship. I'm going to be worshipping with the music on my phone all week long. I can also use YouTube to bring worship into my life if I don't own the music personally. But for this series, I do actually own (some of) the songs and encourage you to get them as well if you like them. Let YouTube be your portal to greater worship throughout your day!
That's how I'm going to share music with all of you this week. For seven days.
Starting today, I am going to commit to seven days of sharing two songs here that draw me into worship. They bring me to a place where I just want to shut the world away and sing, or run, or just lay on the floor and get crushed under the weight of glory.
We can worship in many ways. Of course, the entire life of the Christ-follower should be one of worship, where everything we do is for the Lord rather than men. Let's not be legalistic about this. What I acknowledge about myself is that I have "let slip" the restorative waters that worship music can be in my life, and I'm taking it back.
Walk with me each day, if you like. I promise the remaining days won't have quite so much gab. My point is not to write because I love to hear myself talk (full disclosure, I do love to hear myself talk... I'm working on it). I want to get out of the way and have some moments of praise. As of right now, I want to go old-school and new-school each day. He is worthy, and He is worth it, no matter your age.
Let's get to it, shall we?
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This song, "It Is Well," is a classic hymn from This Glorious Grace, a live album that sprang from artists in Austin Stone Community Church. This rendition by Anthem Lights is equally powerful. | This song, by Andrew Peterson, is from the album "Resurrection Letters, Vol. 1" and is called "Is He Worthy?" If you'll allow me to answer, "Yes, yes... He is." |
What songs take you before God in a unique and powerful way?
Tell us below.