“Worship is the strategy by which we interrupt
our preoccupation with
ourselves and attend
to the presence of God….”
Eugene Peterson
I’ve been thinking a lot about the
presence of God. If I look back on my life, especially at times of powerful
congregational worship, I can honestly say that there are moments when It felt
like God was more present than He was at other times. Why is that? Does God
sometimes choose to be somewhere at one time and yet not at others? Is there
something that we do as worshipers that encourages God to show up more or less
in a place?
I used to believe that if I was a good
enough worship leader and could get a congregation to do and say the right
things, that we could convince God that what was happening down here was worth
His time.
But something I’ve been forced to think
about is the fact that The Holy Spirit is with us always. He doesn’t leave us
when we sin, and He doesn’t become “more present” when we read our Bible’s a
lot. What if leading worship isn’t really about bringing God’s presence to us,
but rather about bringing our present-ness
to God?
In a culture where I find it difficult
to focus on anything for very long (like on this post), where my attention is
constantly being pulled in different directions, one of the most valuable
things I can offer is my attention, the choice to be present.
I find that being present to God is one
of the most life-altering things I can do, because God is always working,
always moving, always breathing. The life-changing power of His presence in my
life is not dependent upon whether or not He shows up. It’s about whether or
not I do. If God is already with us, then the power of His presence becomes
effective and transformative when we acknowledge that He’s there. This is why I
think Paul talks about worship as being a “living sacrifice.”
Anything can be
worship when we acknowledge that God is there.
God has given us Himself, The Holy
Spirit, as a gift. There isn’t anything we can do to earn it or make it better.
As worshipers, maybe it would do us a lot of good to check ourselves when we
begin to believe (as I often do) that the things we do bring God’s presence to
us. Maybe we could challenge ourselves to understand that He is already here,
and it is our job to be present with Him.
The degree to which we choose to be
present to God will be the degree to which worship changes our hearts to be
more like His.
Wholly His,
Lane
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