The Anatomy of Worship, Part 3: It's Not About Appearances.

This will be a relatively short post, as I haven't been doing a lot of delving this week (uh oh), but I had a revelation this morning about worship that I thought I'd share. . .

I had decided that I would listen to Jon Foreman this morning during my housework. He's such an amazing artist and his worship songs are so new and refreshing to me. I love listening to him! He has a song on his worship album entitled "Instead of a Show". I usually skip that song, not because I don't think it's relevant to worship, but because it's just never been one of my favorites,. I didn't skip it today, however, and while listening to the lyrics I was struck with the thought that God is not impressed with our worship.

Whuuuuuuuuut?!

I know. . . I thought the same thing.

It wasn't as though I was under the impression that every time I raised my hands or jumped around that God was looking down at me from Heaven like, "Oh, yes! That Shelby is such a talented Worshiper! I'm impressed with her skills! I give her a 10 out of 10!" No. I never consciously thought that. . . But I'm sure somewhere in the back of my mind, I figured that He was at least pleased with me for the way I was worshiping. I mean, I was impressed with my humbleness in lifting my hands (even though EVERYONE was raising their hands too).

God's not looking for a show though! God is not looking to be entertained by our worship! In fact, unless you feel lead by the Holy Spirit to lift your hands or dance or whatever, then that's all a show! God doesn't look at man on the outside like we do. He sees past the exterior and gets straight to the Heart. He sees right away if our Hearts are pure before Him and sincere in our worshiping of Him. The show we put on for others in our worship isn't even noticed by the Lord, which is why it's important to prepare our Hearts before Him for worship. Whether we're in a church or alone in the living room, out Hearts are what we need to sing and dance and praise Him!  And then through the sincere worship in our Hearts, we can praise him outwardly, honestly, with our hands and voices. . .