Worship

inside the prayer of Courtney Hutchinson:

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I want to worship You for You.  I want to lift my hands, my voice, my shout and not care who sees.  I want to lift my hands, my voice, my shout and not try to prove my holiness by them.  Trying to make people see how great it is to worship by doing it right.  Worship is for nothing else, NOTHING ELSE, but to give You praise! FROM ME TO YOU.  Forgive me Father for doing it for any other reason! Forgive me for making it a ceremony!  I adore you Lord for no other reason that You are You.  AMEN!!

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With music, I feel that worship is just gazing at God and giving Him information about Himself that He gave to us...about Himself.  He is holy.  He is great.  He is exalted.  He is soft and sweet and strong and jealous.  Just telling Him.  Probably sometimes that's the only true communication He gets with us during the week (as for me, I talk His holy ear off minute to minute).  But who are we worshipping when we do it in an attempt to look a certain way or be a certain type of person?  Anyone but God.  Ourselves, others, worship leaders..

I was thinking these things today at church because I was just worshiping like crazy and my arms were flying around and I was clapping above my head and Isaac was yelling out next to me and I was thinking "THIS IS IT!"  THIS is worshiping in abandon and I love it!  When I'm most giving to God of myself in praise form, guess what?  It gratifies me, also!  Only God!  Only my sweet, jealous God would care about me so much that he would let my senses get a little thrill from something that is meant for Him!  It's like a dad who lets his child bake a birthday cake for him and then they both eat it!

Our souls yearn to worship, this I know.  I mean, for one... look how we treat athletes.  We can't wait to jump for joy when they succeed and paint our bodies to prove how much we support them.  It's always driven me a little crazy that people behave like that and no one thinks twice but when I do that for my Creator, it's perceived by many as weird (another blog for another day).  Anyway, in Isaiah, the following scripture shows how people loved to worship their own creations.  So yeah, it's just in us to want to worship...something...anything even if we have to make it.

(Isa 2:8)  And their land is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made.

Sometimes in worship, I feel like I'm just going to fall apart, but it's an amazing feeling.  You know how things always seem to be backwards from how you think it should be according to God?  High is low, rich is poor, first is last... that's how worship is for me.  The more excruciating it is, the more amazing it feels.  Haha crazy!   I KNOW!  And I'm amped up about it!  

So, I guess this was all just written because 1. I started typing and just didn't stop and 2. if you want this type of worship in the presence of God, it's because you were made to want it.  He made you to give it.  

Come to church with me, worship beside me.  I promise I won't hold back on your account, just come and worship God in whatever way you feel comfortable with.  It may be quiet, it may be loud, it may look like worship, it may not.  I will never judge that of others.  I can only be obedient to what I feel within myself and pray that you will, too.

**I want to acknowledge while worship takes MANY forms (even changing diapers in the nursery!) this blog was specifically about praise and worship that takes place usually to music, usually in church...you get it, right?   Corporate worship?  Hope that made sense, I have no idea how to voice that...

But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love,

    will enter your house.  I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you. 

Psalm 5:7

Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!  

Psalm 100:2

"As John 4:23 says, Its time, as worshipers of God, to give him all we have. For when he is exalted, everything about me is decreased. So many times we stand in the way of really stepping into the secret place of worship with God. Just abandon tradition and the "expected" ways of Praise & Worship and get lost in the holy of holies with the sole intention of blessing the Fathers heart." 

Jessica Leah Springer