It seems believers must always judge each other on how we worship, the way we worship, the songs we sing or don’t sing, the platform of praise, the people who lead, the clothes they wear, the way they raise their hands or don’t raise their hands, as well as the way they act after stepping off the platform.  We also judge how loud or how quiet the instruments are played or not played. 

Yes, we are highly judgy people of praise and worship!  The more judgement we spew is probably the meter which measures the authenticity of our own worship.  “Worship wars” over the ages of time that include formulas that guide what and how long we sing, when we sing it with inserted prayer at the “right time” have been going on since people began to worship together.  And oh, how that breaks the heart of God.  It broke my heart as a musician and worshiper of God!

God gifted musicians centuries ago, led people to praises Him–yes even before we were born!  I became aware of this process of praise early as a worship leader trained early on by grandpa the “song leader” in church and then more formally in higher education.  I have discovered that worship is mostly manmade and will probably continue to go on as long as we live in an imperfect world with two choices of who we will worship—God or His enemy who wants to be God.  Satan is the contributor to our prideful thoughts as we praise.  Be aware.  Run from this enemy.

Therefore, we must always check ourselves in worship to our God who we say we love with all our hearts, minds, and souls.  We were born to praise the One who created us and who we have asked to live in us upon repenting, in Jesus Name, of our sins.  We are born to worship the One and Only who longs to have a real, wholesome relationship with us that is pure, holy, and eternal!

God says, “I love you!”  What we say back to Him with honest, humbled hearts of love for God is worship.  What we do, how we live, after we say we love Him back is also worship.  How we treat our brothers and sisters, again is also worship of God.

Malachi, God prophet, explains it well…

Malachi 1, The Message

No More of This So-Called Worship!

A Message. God’s Word to Israel through Malachi:

^2-3 God said, “I love you.”

You replied, “Really? How have you loved us?”

“Look at history” (this is God’s answer). “Look at how differently I’ve treated you, Jacob, from Esau: I loved Jacob and hated Esau. I reduced pretentious Esau to a molehill, turned his whole country into a ghost town.”

⁴ When Edom (Esau) said, “We’ve been knocked down, but we’ll get up and start over, good as new,” God-of-the-Angel-Armies said, “Just try it and see how far you get. When I knock you down, you stay down. People will take one look at you and say, ‘Land of Evil!’ and ‘the God-cursed tribe!’

⁵ “Yes, take a good look. Then you’ll see how faithfully I’ve loved you and you’ll want even more, saying, ‘May God be even greater, beyond the borders of Israel!’

* * *

⁶ “Isn’t it true that a son honors his father and a worker his master? So if I’m your Father, where’s the honor? If I’m your Master, where’s the respect?” God-of-the-Angel-Armies is calling you on the carpet: “You priests despise me!

“You say, ‘Not so! How do we despise you?’

“By your shoddy, sloppy, defiling worship.

“You ask, ‘What do you mean, “defiling”? What’s defiling about it?’

^7-8 “When you say, ‘The altar of God is not important anymore; worship of God is no longer a priority,’ that’s defiling. And when you offer worthless animals for sacrifices in worship, animals that you’re trying to get rid of—blind and sick and crippled animals—isn’t that defiling? Try a trick like that with your banker or your senator—how far do you think it will get you?” God-of-the-Angel-Armies asks you.

⁹ “Get on your knees and pray that I will be gracious to you. You priests have gotten everyone in trouble. With this kind of conduct, do you think I’ll pay attention to you?” God-of-the-Angel-Armies asks you.

¹⁰ “Why doesn’t one of you just shut the Temple doors and lock them? Then none of you can get in and play at religion with this silly, empty-headed worship. I am not pleased. The God-of-the-Angel-Armies is not pleased. And I don’t want any more of this so-called worship!

Offering God Something Hand-Me-Down, Broken, or Useless

¹¹ “I am honored all over the world. And there are people who know how to worship me all over the world, who honor me by bringing their best to me. They’re saying it everywhere: ‘God is greater, this God-of-the-Angel-Armies.’

^12-13 “All except you. Instead of honoring me, you profane me. You profane me when you say, ‘Worship is not important, and what we bring to worship is of no account,’ and when you say, ‘I’m bored—this doesn’t do anything for me.’ You act so superior, sticking your noses in the air—act superior to me, God-of-the-Angel-Armies! And when you do offer something to me, it’s a hand-me-down, or broken, or useless. Do you think I’m going to accept it? This is God speaking to you!

¹⁴ “A curse on the person who makes a big show of doing something great for me—an expensive sacrifice, say—and then at the last minute brings in something puny and worthless! I’m a great king, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, honored far and wide, and I’ll not put up with it!”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Real worship of God comes a sincere heart of love for God that permeates every part of our being and affects how we live our lives.

Eugene Peterson explains:

“Most of life is not lived in crisis—which is a good thing.  Not many of us would be able to sustain a life of perpetual pain or loss or ecstasy or challenge.  But crisis has this to say for it:  In time of crisis everything, absolutely everything, is important and significant.  Life itself is on the line.  No word is casual, no action marginal.  And almost always, God and our relationship with God is on the front page.”

“But during the humdrum times, when things are, as we tend to say, ‘normal’, our interest in God is crowded to the margins of our lives and we become preoccupied with ourselves.  ‘Religion’ during such times is trivialized into asking ‘God-questions’—calling God into question or complaining about him, treating the worship of God as a mere hobby or diversion, managing our personal affairs (such as marriage) for our own convenience and disregarding what God has to say about them, going about our usual activities as if God were not involved in such dailiness.”

“The prophecy of Malachi is made to order for just such conditions.  Malachi creates a crisis at a time when we are unaware of crisis.  He wakes us up to the crisis of God during the times when the only thing we are concerned with is us.  He keeps us on our toes, listening for God, waiting in anticipation for God, ready to respond to God, who is always coming to us.”

“Malachi gets in the last word of Holy Scripture in the Old Testament.  The final sentences in his message to us evoke the gigantic figures of Moses and Elijah—Moses to keep us rooted in what God has done and said in the past, Elijah to keep us alert to what God will do in the days ahead.  By leaving us in the company of mighty Moses and fiery Elijah, Malachi considerably reduces the danger of our trivializing matters of God and the soul.”—Peterson, Introduction to Malachi, The Message

Lord,

As Paul directed us in Romans 12, “In view of your mercy”, I offer all I am to you as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is my true and proper worship of you so I will know what your perfect will is for me today and always. Thank you, Lord for saving my soul. Thank you for continuing to transform my mind with your teaching.  I worship you with all that is in me for I love you heart, mind, body and soul.

In Jesus Name, Amen