Sincere Worship

This morning while walking in the gym before chapel, I came across a young woman who was sitting in the bleachers sulking. This greatly disturbed me, because I knew I could be one of the reasons why she was sulking, and it quickly changed my attitude from 'all is well' to 'all is annoying'. I thought to myself 'Really, does your life suck that much that you would act this way?'. To make the situation worse, the night before I was unable to complete my reading for government class, so this added more distractions onto my offering before the Lord. As I was singing along with the worship crew and my fellow students, I came to realize that I wasn't really paying too much attention to lyrics at all, and when I did, I did not feel that I was giving the Lord my everything. I began to then justify myself by blaming the young woman sitting on the bleachers for distracting me, when in reality I'm the one standing there, blocking my own view of the goodness of God. As my mind was drifting off into the dense forest of my thoughts, I began to realize that my heart was in a dark place at that moment. The only thing I can tell you from the message today was what passages we were in, other than that, I was lost. I knew I had sinned, and that was my time of figuring out why.
That young woman...she deserved grace from me. That young woman...she deserved compassion and understanding from me. What was I doing? I was thinking about myself the ENTIRE morning! HOW can a heart be prepared to worship the Lord if it is so self-absorbed?? She may have been sulking, but I was the one quick to sinfully react to it! The Lord has shown me immeasurable grace, and yet I still act like I deserve to be loved. I act as if my pedestal could not get any higher! My pride hurts me the most, and I have grown so tired of it, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23). I NEED to remind myself of how depraved I really am DAILY, for if I don't, I will become poisoned by self-righteousness. A heart that is ready to worship the Lord is one that is clean, and humble. I found a couple verses on worship from the Psalms...


Psalm 95:6
Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker;


Psalm 99:5
Exalt the LORD our God and worship at his footstool; he is holy.


LET US KNEEL, HE IS HOLY! What a reminder today of how far from that I truly am! The only person that is worthy of being exalted is the Lord, never me. I cannot offer Him sincere worship if my sin is entangling my thoughts. I cannot offer Him sincere worship if my view of Him is lower than myself.

 So, in conclusion, if you are having trouble 'getting into the worship', let me ask you...Do you have anything that you need to repent of? How often have you thought of just yourself up until that point of the day? How has the Lord shown you grace that week? In answering these questions, your heart may become broken, and spurt forth a fountain of praise, as mine did...

May He make me ready to really praise Him in His return. Maranatha.