worship wholeheartedly...

In doing my homework last night, I was reading one of my textbooks Worship is... What? and the author provoked in me much thought on the meaning of worship. Amos 5:21-23 says this:

I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies. Even though you bring Me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them... Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps!"

The people Israel had perfected the forms of worship so much that they could do them without even thinking. They had lost sight of what worship is really all about: bringing glory to God.

It has caused me to examine my own life, to look closely at my own offerings of worship. Am I more concerned with the forms of worship or the methods than with actually worshipping God? Is my heart focused on him or on the various ways I can improve upon the experience of worship? Do I feel the need to do it perfectly or do I just offer what I am able humbly and in a spirit of awe? Where is my mind? Where is my heart? Is it in the right place?

...worship must originate from the heart, but it cannot be just heart. Worship that is heart alone is passive. However, worship that is action alone is not true worship. God wants heart and action. (Worship is... What?, page 27)

Do I just perform? Am I going through the actions mindlessly forgetting to put the heart into it? Is my heart worshipping passively but I am not living it out actively? In my attempts to perform for God am I missing out on simply worshipping the Lord?

The first three commandments that God gave to Moses in Exodus reflect God's desire for his people to worship Him. It's that important to him. Nearly every time God showed his wrath was because his people were refusing to give him the honor, praise, or worship of which only he is worthy. His desire for us to worship him was made evident by his reaction to non-worship and false worship.

In a broad sense, worship is inseparable from and is an expression of life. It is not that man cannot live without worship, it is that he cannot TRULY live without worship... man was made to worship as surely as he was made to breathe... there is an inward craving for worship that cannot permanently be stilled. (Judson Cornwall, quoted by Don McMinn in The Practice of Praise)

I pray that worship, the verb, and worship, the heart, would be a permanent fixture in my life - I want my very life to be worship. I want it to be so evident in my life that God cannot say, "Away with the noise of your songs..." It's not about a performance, it's an attitude, a way of life.