20th
May, 2004
LLOYD
HARKNESS
"Worship
is the place where our heart reaches out to and connects
with God's heart."
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Sight's short definition of worship is: "any thought, word
or deed whose focus is to honour God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit".
This is a broad definition and while there are a wide range of worship
styles in the Old and New Testaments, this discussion will be centred
on an expression of surrender, adoration and intimacy.
Worship is the place where our heart reaches out to and connects
with God's heart. This connection can be made with the aid of music,
corporate singing, meditation on the Word, reflective prayer or
some other vehicle which opens the clogged highways of our hearts
and minds to God.
Sometimes we step straight into this place of surrender, adoration
and intimacy with God. On other occasions 1,000 steps are taken
but it doesn't quite happen.
When it does happen you want nothing more than to flow with the
moment, to bask in the joy of being with Him. There is a stillness,
a calm, a sense of being at one with God. The only words that want
to form in the depth of your being are poetry's sighs and coos;
succinct "words", pregnant with emotion and yearning and
expressive of a spirit at one with all those gathered about the
throne of our King and Friend.
This is not the time to babble, to strain under some cognitive effort
to explain, to quantify, to classify, to delineate the moment. Intimacy
is surging through every neurone in your being, hallelujah is coursing
through every fibre, and that is all that matters. You are wired
and the moment is electric.
Peter could have had such a moment with Jesus on Mt. Transfiguration
but he felt the need to try to do something with it. "Let's
build three booths", he blurted out, when he needed to be still
in mind, heart and hand. Thankfully, God worked around Peter, and
the disciples who were gathered on the mount were able to imbibe
His presence and absorb every poignant detail He chose to reveal.
We are not meant to grab the rudder and try to direct the ship in
worship. There can be no prodding, no suggestions, and no gentle
demands of God when you surrender to Him in adoration. God will
speak or He won't speak. Being with Him is enough. Intimacy is more
than enough.
For
more of The Word...
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THE WORD: WORSHIP