Numbness & Worship

So I was late to church on Sunday.  This isn't an unusual occurrence when you have a toddler and a baby.  And every time I think to myself “I'm just missing worship.”  But this past Sunday I realized it was something else to which I've become numb.  I'm not just missing worship.  I'm missing a chance to connect with God and to prepare myself for Him to speak to me.

Have you ever noticed how much worship prepares your heart to receive?  As I began to think about it I realized that the church services where I was able to truly worship I learned a tremendous amount from the sermon.  I felt like God was speaking directly to me through our pastor's words when I had the chance to prepare my heart to hear from God.  But recently, more times than not, I'm late or distracted during worship and end up struggling to stay awake, let alone hear from God.

Have you ever been to a service where the worship time felt lifeless?  It's unbearable.  During my freshman year of college my parents had started going to a different church while I was away at school.  But the youth group was a strong connection.  I stayed at our old church and helped out with the youth group.  And then one night during the youth service worship everything felt wrong. I was standing in the crowd singing and I could tell that there was no life in the room.  It felt cold and oppressive.  It wasn't worship.  It was a group of kids hanging out.  I had to get out.  I went to the bathroom to get away from the feeling of emptiness that was in the room, regrouped and went back to the service.

I was able to feel the difference because whenever I visited my parent’s new church that there was a joy in praising God that I couldn't feel that night.  The members of that church were truly praising God.  They weren’t there to socialize or make an appearance.  They loved God and were truly worshiping Him.

Worship is not just a time to allow the late-comers a chance to sit down without having everyone look at them funny.  Corporate worship in a church service ushers in the anointing of God on that time.  When the congregation joyfully praises God he is able to do so much more.  Hearts will be touched.  Lives will be changed.  Worship is vital to our time with God.  Without true worship bringing God to the service, despite any attempt of the pastor, preaching becomes lecturing.

God is always trying to speak to us.  But any type of communication is two-way.  Not only do you have to be clear in the message you are trying to convey, they have to understand the message.  You may be an eloquent speaker in all situations, but if the other person is not listening you aren’t communicating.  If they can’t hear you because of noise, you aren’t communicating.

When you’re hardly trying or not trying at all, you’ve become numb to God’s message.  In that youth service, the kids weren’t trying to listen for God.  No matter what God would have tried to say to them, they were not going to hear it.  Last Sunday, I was partly trying to hear from God.  I was letting too much of the “noise” in my life get in the way of God talking to me.

No one is immune from the noise of life getting in the way from hearing from God.  Satan will do everything he can to distract you from God’s voice.  It takes an effort to make certain you are listening to God even, sometimes especially, in church.  Take advantage of the worship time in church to help to wipe away the noise in your life.  Stop singing loudly to show off your voice to the people sitting around you.  Stop singing softly because you’re self-conscious about your voice.  Don’t think about anything other than singing to God.  Praising Him for all He has done for you.  Worshiping Him for Who He Is!  The more your focus leaves the noise in your life and locks in on God, the greater the volume that still small voice take on.

It may only be for a short while, but in that time God will speak volumes.