Those Very Few Times

This is an eDevotion from Mike Sares @ Scum of the Earth. You can subscribe to them by e-mailing Perikatharmata(REMOVETHIS)@aol.com.

The idea of "worship" was never that clear to me. Sometimes I didn't feel I was worshipping God because I had no feelings when I was at church (then, of course, some well-meaning Christians would make me feel worse by hinting about how unspiritual I was). Sometimes I would want to worship so badly that I would go along and act the part of the dynamic worshipper, hoping the feelings would follow. I felt like a fake sometimes, and other times it was just okay. Some people said worship was singing songs and reciting scriptures; other said no, worship was about what you did with your life. Some people said it was a mindset of "ascribing great worth [as in worth-ship]" to Jesus. And then there have been those very few times in my life when I was overcome by the love of God and really can't describe the experience.

So I did a study of the words commonly translated "worship" in the Bible. Here ing in many expressions of thanks to God.

What I derived was that worship is basically two things: REVERENCE & SERVICE.

The REVERENCE part leaves all sorts of room for strong feelings within the course of worship -- sometimes you fall face down because you can't stand up! It also leaves room for very little feeling within the course of worship -- sometimes you pay homage or kneel out of respect for the Lord.

The SERVICE part doesn't require feelings at all -- you serve God and others, period. Sometimes you feel wonderful when you are serving Him and others, sometimes you don't.

Hope this helps,
Mike