Set Your Heart, HT to Challies. “’I just don’t want to be a Pharisee.‘ This is normally how it starts. There is a good impulse to want to avoid self-righteousness or gospel-less obedience. But this good impulse quickly gets co-opted by the devil.”
5 Ways to Worship God in Everyday Life. “Worship includes both words and actions. It is more than a feeling, an experience, an environment, or a ritual. Worship is communicating through what we say and what we do that God is most important in our lives. How do we keep God first every day?”
The World Needs Evangelists with Cheerful Confidence, HT to Challies. “Christians who share the gospel today shouldn’t imagine themselves trapped in a pit of defeater beliefs, scrambling to dig their way up to level ground just to make a case. No. It’s the world that’s in the pit. The believer stands on solid ground, secure on the rock, and calls out with confidence, ‘Come up higher. There is light, there is air, there is life up here.'”
The Mother I Meant to Be, HT to Challies. “Be the best mother you can, but sanctification—for you and them—comes slowly. You will not be enough, and the good in your children will sometimes be in spite of you rather than because of you. That may sound depressing now, but it will be a relief later.”
1,440 Jewels: Mastering the 1,440 Minutes God Gives You. “We all live on the same 24-hour clock, but have you ever paused to consider the sheer number of minutes we are gifted? There are 1,440 minutes in every single day. That’s not just a mathematical fact; for the Christian, it’s a profound spiritual truth. Each minute is a tiny, precious container, filled with potential for worship, service, growth, and connection with our Creator.”
Of course you’re not up to the task, that’s why you’ve been given the presence, promises and provisions of Jesus. Paul David Tripp
Sometimes, Worship Should Be Hard. “We plan our worship services several months in advance. We choose themes for each service and discuss how to introduce them. Last Sunday, our chosen theme was ‘Our Good God.’ In the canon of worship themes we use, the goodness of God is not as difficult to explain as something like transcendence or immanence. But on Sunday, July 6, 2025, it was hard. As we filed into the church and greeted one another, nearly 100 people were still missing due to flash floods in Texas.”
Trying to Make Sense of Bad Things that Happen, HT to Challies. “Most people find it pretty easy to accept that the good things which happen are from the hand of God. But we find it hard to accept any bad, tragic, or painful experiences that come our way. Can they really be from God? Are they really under his governance? Can they really be for a good purpose? The Bible says, ‘Yes, they are. Yes, they can.'”
Boaz: A Pillar of Leadership. Boaz is one of my favorite OT people. “Boaz wasn’t a king, prophet, or warrior. He was a businessman and landowner, yet he exemplified godly leadership. His leadership wasn’t flashy, but it was faithful. It wasn’t about personal gain but about a godly impact. So, what made Boaz a leader worth emulating?”
Leviticus and the Right Hand of Fellowship, HT to Challies. “What we fail to realise is the catechetical nature of the book of Leviticus. As the centre point (and, I would argue, climax) of the Torah or Teaching, its goal is not to simply lay down a law to live by, or to provide fodder for debates over what verses we use. The goal of Leviticus is teaching. And it is hands on teaching much like that of a missionary landing in foreign culture.”
Staying Afloat in Summer. A mom of a newly-graduated high school student looks back at ways she wished she had handled summers.
When You’re Dreading Monday Mornings, HT to Redeeming Productivity. “Maybe you’re currently in a job you once longed for—even prayed for—and couldn’t wait to start, but now you have the Sunday scaries, dragging yourself out of bed on Monday morning only to count down the days until Friday. Or maybe you’re in a job you never really wanted but took out of necessity, expecting to move on to something different after a short time—but you haven’t. So what do you do when you’re no longer excited to go to work?”
Daily prayers and religious readings and churchgoing are necessary parts of the Christian life. We have to be continually reminded of what we believe. C. S. Lewis
Our Father Values His Children, HT to the Story Warren. “The Father certainly feeds the birds and takes care of us. We can easily see how He takes care of us when we have all we need. But what about those times when the resources we typically depend on dry up, and from your viewpoint all looks impossible.”
You Need God When Life Is Good: Three Ways to Remember Your Need. “It doesn’t usually happen on purpose, but quietly, thoughtlessly. We slide into self-reliance not because we don’t need God, but because the comfort of the moment dulls our awareness of just how much we do.”
The Cool of the Day. “But this…this is worship too. God speaks in the heat of the kitchen as well as the cool of the day, if I have ears to hear.”
Does Your Prayer Life Point to the Beauty of Christ? “Prayer continues to be the most difficult of all the spiritual disciplines for me. Prayer is hard. Maybe you’ve had the same thought: ‘I don’t like to talk about this, but it’s really hard for me to pray. It’s awkward, and I don’t know what to say. I don’t know how to do it.‘”
Let God’s Word Shape Your Prayers. “While we know that we’ve been given an indescribable gift in prayer, we often miss its full potential, offering only intangible and vague petitions such as ‘be with so-and-so as they go through this trial.’ We want to pray, but we lack the right words to shape our prayers. How do we pray beyond the surface need and get to the heart of the matter?”
Fallen Behind on Your Bible Reading Plan? HT to Redeeming Productivity. “This is the time of year when many readers give up on their Bible reading plans. Despite their best intentions, their plans fall by the wayside. But there’s no need to wait until next January to start over. Now is the time to ‘go’ for it and get back into the rhythm and routine of Bible reading. After all, the person who is truly blessed is the one who delights in and meditates on God’s instruction day and night (Psalm 1:2). Here are some strategies to help you get going if you have been struggling to read Scripture daily and thoughtfully.”
Cultivating Flavor. “When my children were trying solid foods for the first time, many helpful advice-givers encouraged me to try varied tastes, textures, and types of foods so that the kids would grow into healthy adults. It makes me want to cultivate this type of flavor in their education and entertainment choices. I don’t only want to put my time and effort into growing herbs in the garage to flavor their food. I also want to shape the moral palates of each of my children so that they will love virtue and live as lights in darkness.”
Master Your Moments and Master Your Days. “God is more interested in who we are becoming than in what we are accomplishing. Great deeds done from bad motives please God less than small deeds done from great character. And character’s primary focus is always on the matter at hand, the duty of the moment.”
Being the Best Christian, HT to Challies. “You would think that after almost 34 years of walking with the Lord, this ‘be the best’ mentality would hardly be a problem anymore, a thing of the past that I’ve outgrown. While the Lord has given me more wisdom and discernment to see it, it still entangles me from time to time.”
Facing the Midlife Spiritual Plateau, HT to Redeeming Productivity. “For those who’ve been following Jesus for years, it’s not uncommon to hit a spiritual plateau, often in midlife. You’re reading the Bible, going to church, part of a growth group, serving where you can—but it feels like you’re no longer growing. Not like you once did. Instead, it’s like you’re coasting.”
What’s Lost Isn’t Always Lost. HT to the Story Warren. “Our most memorable losses are sometimes the most inconsequential ones. Once when I was five, my brother and I were bored outside of church, because our parents were talking to the big people again. So we started playing catch with my Luke Skywalker action figure and after one fumbled throw, Luke dropped through the iron grate of a storm drain. I still have the memory of seeing my prized toy only four feet away, but absolutely inaccessible.”
Diapers of Glory, HT to Challies. “Now that I’m a stay-at-home mom, success looks different than it once did—and, like the disciples, I realize I’ve been asking the wrong questions.”
Diabolus Ex Machina, HT to Challies. This is an unsettling “conversation” with AI in which it repeatedly lies. (Note: not from a Christian source).
Your relationship with God will never be any stronger, more vibrant, or more genuine than your relationship with the Word of God. Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth
My husband and I aren’t rah rah people. I didn’t care for pep rallies in school. We cheer at games, especially when our kids are playing. But otherwise, we’re pretty quiet people.
I’ve cringed when I’ve occasionally heard preachers rebuke people for being more excited at a football game than at church. I understand their point, but I’ve thought, “Do you really want the cacophony of a ball game in here?”
So I was encouraged when our Sunday School teacher recently pointed out a verse about silence.
She said that translations vary in how they render the first verse of Psalm 65. The ESV says, “Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion, and to you shall vows be performed.”
But many other translations mention silence, like the NASB: “There will be silence before You, and praise in Zion, God, And the vow will be fulfilled for You.”
The difference seems to be in the word “awaits,” which means, in the Greek, “A silence, a quiet waiting, repose” (according to the bottom of this page).
Worship in silence.
Personally, I feel most worshipful in silence before the Lord. I resonate with David in another psalm when he says, “For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken” (Psalm 62:1-2).
But sometimes silence results not just from personality, but from awe. Job understandably cries out about his suffering and wonders what God is doing in his life for multiple chapters of the book bearing his name.
And then God speaks. He doesn’t answer Job’s questions. But He reveals his power and care over all His creation.
Job responds, “Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth. I have spoken once, and I will not answer; twice, but I will proceed no further.”
The only response to such majesty, power, and greatness was humility and silence. There are just no words. As God said in Habakkuk 2:20: “But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.”
Sometimes silence before the Lord comes from depth of feeling, as when “the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” (Romans 8:26).
Sometimes we’re silent in God’s presence because we have no excuses. We know we’ve done wrong and deserve whatever chastisement we’re experiencing. We understand the author of Lamentations when he says, “The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him; let him put his mouth in the dust—there may yet be hope” (3:25-29). He reminds himself just a few verses later, “For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love” (3:31-32).
We also need silence to listen and learn. As many a teacher has said, “You can’t listen while you’re talking.”
Worship with shouting.
But, as Ecclesiastes says, there is “a time to keep silence, and a time to speak” (3:7).
David goes on in the psalm our class was studying, Psalm 65, to talk about the blessings of answered prayer, forgiveness, and God’s presence. He exalts God for His “awesome deeds,” for creation, for God’s care of all He has made. And then he mentions shouting: “You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy” (verse 8b).
Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart! (Psalm 32:11).
Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous! Praise befits the upright (Psalm 33:1).
Though I am not a shouter by nature, the closest I get to that exuberant joy that can’t be contained, that has to burst out somehow, is when someone is baptized.
Worship with singing.
Psalm 65 closes with singing in verse 13: “The meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy.”
Perhaps we associate singing with worship more than any other activity, though all of a church service and all of our lives can be acts of worship if done as unto the Lord.
Of course, there are a plethora of verses that talk about worshiping the Lord through song:
Oh sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth! Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day (Psalm 96:1-2).
But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you (Psalm 5:11).
But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me (Psalm 13:5-6).
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God (Colossians 3:16).
I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise (Hebrews 2:12).
I especially love passages that say God is our song, like Isaiah 12:2: “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the LordGod is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.”
Psalm 65 starts with silence and ends with shouting and singing. Sometimes our silent worship and contemplation of God’s word and character will erupt into boisterous praise. Sometimes singing God’s songs with other believers will give us something to take home and think about in silence. Some days, and some seasons of life, lend themselves to silence, others to loud praise. Whether we come before the Lord in silence or with singing and shouting, we know He is with us and will hear us.
God is SO Good! “It is a vice—not a virtue—to add to Scripture’s rules our own ascetic prohibitions: “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch,” and “Do not marry” (Colossians 2:21; 1 Timothy 4:3). Such rules may appear to be ‘super holy,’ but they are an offense to God, substituting legalism for the simplicity of the gospel. They deny the very pleasures God created us to enjoy.”
We Are Standing on Holy Ground. “It’s so sweet to walk into a church and know that God’s people are gathered for worship. Of course He is near. A holy moment. But isn’t it a holy moment, too, when you are sitting in a doctor’s office, holding hands with your faithful wife, enduring the bad news with faith? As believers we tread on holy ground in every school building, nursing home, leafy forest floor, and in every possible scenario we could dream up. Isn’t it just so thrilling to know that when we praise Him He is near, and when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, there too, there especially, He is wrapping us up in His presence. Carrying us. Seeing us through. Never leaving, never forsaking.”
God Will Give Us More Than We Can Handle—But Not More Than He Can, , HT to Challies. “The sufferer may object, head shaking and hands up. But you insist, ‘Look, seriously, the Bible promises God won’t ever give you more in life than you can handle.’ There it is—conventional wisdom masquerading as biblical truth. You’ve promised what the Bible never does.”
Our Skewed View of Wealth, HT to Challies. “These case studies show how money is a litmus test of our true character and our spiritual life. If this is true of all people in all ages, doesn’t it have a special application to us who live in a time and nation of unparalleled affluence where the ‘poverty level’ exceeds the average standard of living of nearly every other society in human history, past or present?” This was especially poignant to me since I just read a novel discussing wealth, All My Secrets by Lynn Austin.
Bad Therapy, HT to Challies. “To become a lover of pleasure is to prioritise ‘feel good’ throughout life. We want to feel good, and we want others to feel good too. This is the ethic. We abandon a moral view of reality in which there is a good and right way, outside ourselves, to which we should train ourselves and our children to live up to. All that matters is feeling okay. This is therapy culture.” This has devastating effects on child discipline, as the author shows.
At a recent ladies’ Bible study, the topic of worship came up. We agreed that worship wasn’t just singing in church. But some of the women wondered how we can maintain a worshipful attitude while correcting our children or cleaning the house.
That’s where the rubber meets the road, doesn’t it? It’s one thing to worship while reading an inspiring passage, singing in church, or hearing preaching that opens our eyes to truth about God.
But how can we carry that into everyday life? Cleaning, errands, traffic, and computer problems don’t seem conducive to worship.
It helps to consider once again what worship actually is. I heard a preacher define worship as “worth-ship,” ascribing to God His worth.
Dictionary.com defines worship as: “reverent honor and homage paid to God or a sacred personage, or to any object regarded as sacred; adoring reverence or regard.”
Our Bible study is going through Isaiah using Tim Chester’s Isaiah for You: Enlarging Your Vision of Who God Is. Chapter 3 focuses on Isaiah 12, which is an example of worship even though the word isn’t used.
Isaiah had previously discussed God’s great anger towards His people who had disobeyed Him and sought help from godless people rather than Him.
Verse 1 thanks God that “though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort me.
Verse 2 declares, “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.”
Verse 3 assures, “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.”
Verse 4 reminds us to thank the Lord, call upon His name, make known His deeds, proclaim His name among people.
Verses 5 and 6 tell us to sing and make known His greatness and the glorious things He has done.
Thinking of who God is and what He has done for us turns our hearts to worship.
But what about those moments that seem contrary to worship?
We can do these things in the midst of traffic snarls, dusting, or waiting on hold on the phone. In fact, worship would redeem the time and change our mood and frustration. As we remember His salvation, our joy will overflow. As we remember who He is and what He has done, our hearts turn to praise. As we remember His greatness, we sing His praise with joy and tell others about Him. Those things can infuse all we do.
Since God is our strength and my song, we can ask His help and strength.
We have to remember, too, that worship is an act, not a feeling. After Job lost everything, “Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord'” (Job 1:20-21). In the psalms of lament, the writers acknowledge who God is even while pouring out their hearts to Him about their problems. In fact, it’s because of who He is that they can tell Him what’s wrong. They know that He cares and can be trusted to help.
Singing not only springs from worship, but it can lead us to worship. Sometimes when we come into church Sunday mornings from a busy week and the trials of getting ready that always seem to come up on Sunday mornings, we plop down in our chairs and don’t feel worshipful. But once we start singing, our hearts are turned to God. We can do that at home, too. I love to have Christian music playing while I’m puttering around the house.
Another aspect of worship is yielding our whole selves to God. Romans 12:1-2 says, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers,by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” When we give Him everything, we’re acknowledging that He is worth yielding all to.
He redeems not only our souls, but our work. Elisabeth Elliot said in A Lamp for My Feet:
The job has been given to me to do. Therefore it is a gift. Therefore it is a privilege. Therefore it is an offering I may make to God. Therefore it is to be done gladly, if it is done for Him. Therefore it is the route to sanctity.
Here, not somewhere else, I may learn God’s way. In this job, not in some other, God looks for faithfulness. The discipline of this job is, in fact, the chisel God has chosen to shape me with–into the image of Christ.
We could substitute task, responsibility, or even ministry for the word “job” there.
When dealing with a fretful little one, we can appreciate God’s fatherly care of us when we’re fussy. When a child is being stubborn, we can be thankful for God’s patience with us and seek His help to be patient with our children. We can remember that we’re modeling parental love and care that our children will hopefully one day translate into their relationship with God.
When cleaning the house, we can rejoice in imitating His bringing order out of chaos. We’re reflecting a God who does things “decently and in order” (1 Corinthians 14:40). We’re caring for our family by creating a safe, sanitary place, and a peaceful home. When I’ve gotten irritated at how often things need to be cleaned, I sometimes think about God’s patience in cleansing me every day.
When the car or oven or computer break down, it’s a reminder that this world and everything in it is temporary. All we have is His, and we can trust Him to supply our needs. Meanwhile, we lay up treasure in heaven, where moth and rust don’t corrupt and thieves don’t break through and steal (Matthew 6:19-21).
If we regularly spend time reading and thinking about God’s Word, reasons for worship and examples will come to mind throughout the day.
These things remind me of one of my favorite poems:
Lord of all pots and pans and things, since I’ve not time to be A saint by doing lovely things or watching late with Thee Or dreaming in the dawn light or storming Heaven’s gates Make me a saint by getting meals and washing up the plates.
Although I must have Martha’s hands, I have a Mary mind And when I black the boots and shoes, Thy sandals, Lord, I find. I think of how they trod the earth, what time I scrub the floor Accept this meditation Lord, I haven’t time for more.
Warm all the kitchen with Thy love, and light it with Thy peace Forgive me all my worrying and make my grumbling cease. Thou who didst love to give men food, in room or by the sea Accept this service that I do, I do it unto Thee.
—Klara Munkres
How can we worship during everyday, mundane, or even negative circumstances? By acknowledging His worth and doing all we do as unto Him.
How about you? What helps you keep a worshipful attitude in everyday life?
Resolutions. “Jesus does not need your resolutions, your recommitments, or your promises to try harder this year. If your resolve to obey God last year did not help you to be faithful, it will not make you successful this year. Jesus asks for your love.”
Christmas Is Over. Now What Do We Do with Jesus? “Celebrating the birth of that baby with the beautiful story of the stable and the manger is easy. But once the nativity sets are packed away (ok, ALL of my decorations aren’t put away yet), do we still think about Him?”
Leaving Christianity: How an Old Man Helped Save My Faith, HT to Challies. “If He was so good and so kind, why, despite my greatest efforts and consistent faith, was nothing working out? I was the kid who always kept his nose clean, had his act together, and tried to do the right thing. Why wasn’t I prospering?”
Prayer for My Heart This Election Year, HT to Challies. “Whether we’re interested in political science or not, this year with all of its candidates and craziness, will bring with it a raft of temptations. As I consider the year ahead, I know I need to guard my heart against the enemy’s attacks. Will you join with me in preparing your heart for whatever might happen in the months leading up to November 5?”
A Little Story about Worship. Dan Olinger shares a neat story about a worship experience in the Kenyan bush. It didn’t take place during the singing, but the offering time.
Chasity as Worship, HT to Challies. “I heard the message loud and clear: girls don’t struggle like boys do. So when I discovered that I had a sex-drive, I felt nothing but shame. I have carried that shame throughout most of my life and still, to this day, have to wrestle it down sometimes and triple-punch it with the truth of the Imago Dei, the God-created goodness of sexuality, and the full forgiveness in Christ for all our sins. But I want more for my daughter.”
The Day I Told God No, HT to Challies. “I was free to say it, and free to live it, but I was not free to control the consequences of that one little word. There in my room I was sitting at a crossroads. I could continue with the “no”, or I could continue with God. I could not continue with both. If I wanted God in my life, I could only have him one way: as my King. He would not accept a position as my consultant.”
What If I Don’t Know When I Believed in Christ? HT to Challies. “I spiraled into a season of doubting my salvation in Christ. This severe doubt led me to sit in my pastor’s office where I heard an analogy from Spurgeon that continues to comfort me. And if you struggle with doubt and assurance, I trust this will aid you as it did me.”
How Do You Plan on Fighting Sin? HT to Challies. Each of us has besetting sins that we deal with constantly. This article has some good steps to consider and implement in fighting sin.
The Problem Is Your Worship, HT to Challies. “Your life may have you feeling stressed and burdened. You are surprised by feeling anxious over the smallest disruption in your schedule. A dark cloud of depression seems to consume your days. You try every problem-solving solution you know to shake the feelings of overwhelm and despair—better planning, networking, self-improvement classes, changing your diet and exercise, staying busy. The gripping fear that nothing is working has you running scared.”
Motherhood Isn’t Martyrdom, HT to Challies. “Many of our taglines overemphasize the pain of motherhood to the exclusion of the delight. We stress how being a mom is so hard, overwhelming, frustrating, and painful. If we’re not careful, we can begin to sound like we’re equating motherhood with martyrdom. But the Bible speaks of motherhood as a gift, a crown, and a joy.”
Your Short-Term Mission Trip Should Be About You (and That’s not a Bad Thing), HT to Challies. “I’m still a fan of short-term missions. This is not an anti-missions-trip article. Those are out there. This is not one of them. So why do I still encourage these trips? Because I believe God can use them to transform lives. Not necessarily the lives of the people you are serving. But your life? Yes!”
Here are some of the thought-provoking reads discovered this week:
On Worship. A very clear, simple, and helpful explanation.
Trusting God in the Midst of Tragedy, HT to Challies. “How do you go on in life when something like this happens? How do you move forward as a husband, a dad, a Pastor? There is no training that can prepare you for this.”
When God Contests His Children, HT to Challies. “During the fight, God caused Jacob to undergo a complete reversal. Jacob went from striving against God to clinging to Him, and that is where he received the blessing.”
Love Your (Imperfect) Pastors, HT to Challies. “When our expectations for how our pastors must act or behave center on our preferences or pet agendas, we likely will lose the eager anticipation we should have when gathering with God’s people.”
Kindness: More Than Just a Random Act, HT to The Story Warren. “While there’s nothing wrong with encouraging people to do nice things, the Bible has a radically different take on kindness. It teaches that kindness is a fruit of the Spirit, a supernatural gift from God. Kindness is much more than being friendly, generous, and considerate. Kindness is what God is.”
Using a Literature Approach to teach Early American History, HT to The Story Warren. I’m not endorsing the product mentioned–I don’t know anything about it beyond this article. But I love this idea. I had zero interest in history until college, when a professor made it come alive for me. And I’ve learned so much reading historical fiction which then leads me to look up more about the history it covers.
How to Talk to Kids About Their Art. I wish I had thought of some of these approaches when my kids were young! And it’s an interesting observation that “too much empty praise can have negative effects on our kids’ motivations.”
Sorry, I don’t have any videos or graphics today. 🙂
Many associate worship with the singing time at church, although that’s not the only time and way we worship. But, even within that context, I think many would say they “feel” worshipful when their heart has been touched and they feel warm, cozy, loved, affirmed.
In our church’s reading through Leviticus this week, we came across quite a different worship experience:
The glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the pieces of fat on the altar, and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces. (Leviticus 9:23b-–24)
It’s not clear in the ESV translation above, but other translations say the people shouted for joy and fell face down.
What was the occasion of this reaction? Israel had left Egypt not long before, where they’d been for 400 years with only oral traditions of their faith, surrounded by pagan religions and cruelty. God was very patient with their grumbling and lack of faith at first. But after several manifestations of His power during the plagues in Egypt, His parting of the Red Sea for their deliverance, His provision of food and water and everything they needed, it sure seemed like they’d start trusting and obeying.
Instead, while He gave His law to Moses on the mountain, the people built a golden calf to worship.
God dealt with their idolatry severely. Now He had them camp for a while to teach them more about who He was and how He wanted to be worshiped. He gave them instructions to build a tabernacle with deeply symbolic accoutrements. He designated the priests and detailed their attire. Now He instituted the sacrificial system by which they could be forgiven, express their dedication, and fellowship with Him.
In Leviticus 9, the newly inducted priests offered the very first offerings under the new system.
God responded by manifesting His glory and sending fire to consume the offering.
The people responded by shouting for joy and falling on their faces.
I can understand shouting and falling face down. I’d likely be startled out of my wits by such a display. But joy? Shouting for joy and falling face down in awe seem like opposite reactions. But the Greek word for shout here indicates both being overwhelmed and joyful.
In Warren Wiersbe’s short commentary on Leviticus, Be Holy (Leviticus): Becoming “Set Apart” for God, he says of this verse:
The paradoxical response of the people helps us better understand the experience of worship, for they were both joyful and overwhelmed. There was joy in their hearts that the true and living God had deigned to dwell among them and receive their worship, but there was also fear as the people fell on their faces in awe. The two attitudes balance each other. “Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling” (Ps. 2: 11). Paul saw this as a desirable and normal experience in the local assembly (1 Cor. 14: 23–25). If our ministry doesn’t glorify God, then God can’t bless it and use it to help others and win the lost.
“Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.”
This is not the only time where people fell on their faces in awe in the Bible.
Feeling warm and loved are wonderful parts of our relationship with the Lord. But I think we sometimes miss the awe, or we avoid it because we’d rather feel cozy.
But perhaps a sense of awe generated by a glimpse of God’s glory and power might do our souls better sometimes. Awe would encourage us to avoid sinning against such a holy God. It would assure us that God is more than able to take care of any need we have. It would remind us how small we are. And we would rejoice in His holiness, in His power, His care, and His gracious love to us.
Someone at my college used to say that worship is worth-ship—ascribing to God His worth. The more we come to know Him for who He truly is, the more we can worship Him in spirit and in truth.
“Salvation to God, who sits on the throne!” let all cry aloud, and honor the Son; the praises of Jesus the angels proclaim, fall down on their faces and worship the Lamb.
Then let us adore and give him his right: all glory and power, all wisdom and might, all honor and blessing with angels above and thanks never ceasing for infinite love.
Stray Thoughts 