Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. — Psalm 95:6-7
When we think of worship, we may think of a location like a church building or perhaps a small gathering in a home. Most of us go to church to worship the Lord. We sing songs and hymns of praise and adoration because our desire is to realize the presence of God in our midst.
Worship often produces feelings of great joy and excitement and well it should. Emotional responses to the glory and presence of God have always been appropriate, when done in order and reverence. God has given us the subjective response of emotion. He has made us in such a way that we cannot think or contemplate spiritual things without some exercise of this ability.
But what happens if we fail to achieve a certain feeling? Suppose the hymns or praise choruses are not to our liking? Or we just don’t feel very good at the time? Have we failed to worship God? Must we wait for another time? Perhaps there’s more to worshiping God than what we may experience in a worship service.
In Europe many generations ago, a dear old saint of God known simply as Brother Lawrence, was on his death bed. Rapidly losing his physical strength, he witnessed to those gathered around him, “I am not dying. I am just doing what I have been doing for the past 40 years, and doing what I expect to be doing for all eternity!”
“What is that?” he was asked. He replied quickly, “I am worshiping the God I love.”
Worshiping God—that was primary for Brother Lawrence no matter where he was—even when he was dying, but that was secondary. He knew why he had been born into this world—and he knew why he had been born again. Did you know that Brother Lawrence is still worshiping God today? He died and they buried his body somewhere, but his was a living soul, created in the image of God. So today he is still worshiping with all the saints around the throne of God.
Someday so will we. So why not start right now? Right where you are.
