I'm reading A.W. Tozer's The Purpose of Man: Designed to Worship. It's quite possibly the most wonderful thing I've ever read - written by man. I love this man's heart for God. I love that he's not showy or interested in being anything more than a child of God.
Early on in the book he takes us back to the garden of Eden to remind us that God created us for His worship and fellowship. God walked with Adam and Eve in the garden, and no doubt He was broken when that fellowship was lost. Our God loves us so deeply and wants that time with us. He is Jealous for us.
We were created to worship. As Tozer points out, because of the fall we suffer from spiritual amnesia. We forget that we're created by God for God and that in that we find ultimate fulfillment - because that's how we are designed. So if we don't worship God we will find something else to worship. This is the great tragedy.
I focus so much on the work that I think I should be doing. And the truth of the matter is that a part of that is rooted in trying to be good enough or do what I think I should do as a Christian. Even when it flows from my faith, if it's not flowing from my worship of God, it's not rooted as it should be. I love that Tozer says, "God is infinitely more concerned that He has worshipers than that He has workers...I do not think we should ever work until we learn to worship." It makes my heart leap for joy. It relieves something in me and makes sense of so much for me. Anytime I feel like I'm groping for my task or mission or work or purpose, these two lines confirm in me that the reason for that confusion and frustration is because I'm forgetting who I am and why God created me.
He does not need me to sing for him (He needs absolutely nothing from me), but He's placed a harp in my heart (as Tozer describes) so that I may sing praises for Him. Just as the bird sings for our enjoyment, God has created us to sing worship to Him - in our heart, through our lives, our fellowship with Him, our praises for Him, and in my life, He gifts me with a warble in my throat with endless songs like the nightengale. It gives me such great joy to know that He created me to lift my voice for Him simply for His enjoyment. How precious we are.
I don't need to worry about my task from day to day. He did not create me to work, though He blesses me with those moments to serve; to practice my faith and mold me into His image. He created me to Worship. Tozer goes on to say, "out of our deep worship flows our work for Him."
The bottom line is that I don't need to try so hard. I don't need to run as fast as I can to cure the hurt in the world or respond in the most effective way or find another way to make things better or serve or be in the right place for whatever work there is. Don't get me wrong. It's good to serve. He calls us to serve. He calls us to reflect God's light and love to the world. However, that light shines out of us in response to our worship of the Almighty.
I want to walk in the garden with my Creator and praise His holiness and rejoice in His great love for us. I want to kneel before Him and reach up in love for Him. I want fellowship with my Creator.
This may be a digression, but I think it's important to mention. Something about this pure pursuit of worshiping God in Spirit and truth reveals how idolatry creeps in, even in our churches. Our worship should be fully for God, not mostly. Our attention should be fully on God, not mostly. We lift our worship stages above the rest of the congregation and perpetuate the western culture's idea of church service. I'm not convinced that the way we do it pursues pure worship to God. I think it tempts people to idolize those on stage. In our own churches, we play with fire and some are getting burned.
I think for some it's well intended, and I think for others it's excusing that kind of idolatry in the name of more impactful or passionate worhsip. It churns my stomach. Why in front of everyone? Why up on a stage? How can we be better about this?? I fully understand the need to project the sound to a large room full of people. I understand the importance of keeping everyone on the same tempo. But I will never be convinced that this is the best way to do it. My heart aches at the way that I know it stirs idolatry in hearts.
Christian music teeters at times as well. Whenever we are more attentive to the person on stage, their talents, music, clothes, movements, or whatever it is more than we are attentive to our God (even when the person on stage is in competition of any kind with God's praises, whether they intend for that to happen or not) we are playing with this ugly sin of idolatry. We don't need Christian music to worship. We must be careful of any dependency on it. We must be careful that our worship is not pure worship in Spirit and truth. If we are not careful, we will fall into the same trap that Hollywood perpetuates, and as children of the Almighty God it should not be so.
Our God deserves our worhsip and love and adoration because He created us out of His love and desire to be with us. He is all powerful, merciful, just, and gracious. He is the Creator of the heavens and earth and yet He desires to intimately walk with us. Through the saving blood of Jesus Christ we can return to the garden and walk with our God. Where sin has created a chasm and spit us out of the garden, our loving Lord calls us, beckons us back to walk in the coolness of the day with Him. There we meet our Creator and joy unspeakable as we find ultimate fulfillment in our true purpose - pure worship of our amazing God in Spirit and truth.
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