HOW ABOUT A
BIG DOGGY KISS?
How do you approach worship? "Well I usually face the front of the church, close my eyes and . . ." No, that's not what I meant, silly! What I really want to know is: do you evaluate your worship experience by what you give, or by what you receive? Now be honest, no fudging on your answer please.
Doesn't the word "worship" invoke in your mind images more in keeping with what you receive? After all, what's behind such statements as, "Oh, the service was so worshipful today." Or, "That church over there; whenever I go there, I just can't get into the worship." Often when we classify an experience as "being", or "not being" worshipful, what we are really evaluating are our personal feelings and experience, right? True, such evaluations aren't completely without foundation. When we have entered into sincere worship, we should expect our emotions and feelings to be profoundly affected. When the created approaches the Creator, how can we not feel something! Still, what we receive in the "worship experience" is as far from the point of worship as Tofu is from Prime Rib.
To worship God means that we focus on Him. He is our audience. We come to entertain Him, not ourselves. To worship God means that we love, adore, and revere Him. To worship God means that we humble ourselves and lift Him up. In worship we take our eyes off ourselves and place them upon Him. So to evaluate our worship experience based on how it makes us feel is totally off the mark. It's turning our eyes back on ourselves by placing our desire for experience above our service to God. Such actions are akin to "adoration misalignment", which is the politically correct phrase for idolatry.
Think about it. If worship is giving the proper love, respect, attention, and adoration to God, then how we feel during the act of worship is really immaterial, right? At best, our feelings and experience should be only considered a bonus byproduct of doing what we were created to do in the first place - glorify God! God, by His very nature, is worthy of all of our love, attention, respect adoration, and obedience - regardless of how we feel, or what we experience. In fact, there will be times when our proper worship will bring feelings of discomfort, despair, and sorrow as God deals with what needs to be changed in our hearts. A genuine worship experience therefore, isn't always warm and fuzzy.
So the real question about worship that really should concern us is: Are we giving God the proper focus and loving attention He deserves? Perhaps a quick look at the root meaning for the Greek New Testament word for worship would be helpful in answering this question.
The Greek word proskuneoô (worship) literally means, "to kiss." The picture it paints is that of a dog licking it's master's hand. I love that picture! A good dog lives for his master. His master is the center of his universe. If the master wants to go for a walk, the dog is there. If the master want's to go hunting, again, the dog is there. If the master wants to play, the dog is REALLY there, waiting, watching, hoping to gain the Master's attention. This is the kind of attitude we should have in worship. We should be totally focused on the throne of God, waiting for any move of our Master's hand.
Yet, many of us, including myself at times, have fallen into a catty kind of worship. How does a cat treat its master? WHAT MASTER?! A cat may live in the presence of its provider and co-habitator, but it has no master. It's its own master. This, of course, isn't to say that a cat won't pay attention to the people with whom it lives. When it's hungry, or when it has an itch to be scratched, or a need to get warm, a cat is right there, demanding attention and returning the catty equivalent of affection. But, a cat is never capable of adoration unless it is self adoration. Cats have only their own best interests at heart. They really don't care about the master so much as they care about what the master can provide. Maybe I am exaggerating the case a bit, but only by a bit. (Cat lovers, please don't get your fur up, I am one of you!)
How often have you been like a cat with God? Have you ever circled His legs just when you want to be fed? Have you ever sought His lap, only when you wanted to be scratched? Do you come running into His presence only when you hear the sound of a tin opening? I am sure that most of the fine class of people that frequent Graceland would never be so unashamedly self-centered in their relationship with God! Still, are you sure that some of your attention hasn't wandered from the throne and circled back on yourself? Are you sure that the motivation of your worship of God is to know Him, and not just to receive from Him? Is there any cattiness in your approach to God? Go ahead, reject your feline ways and give your Master a big doggy kiss! Sit at His feet and be attentive to His movements, listen for His call, and always be ready for a walk wherever He wants to take you. He deserves no less.
If you have any questions, or comments, please click on my name at the bottom of this page. I promise to write back.
