Holy week is upon us and I cannot help but notice the "busyness" in the modern American church. Everything from dyeing eggs to draping crosses to planning the perfect Easter dinner is distracting us from our mission and genuine worship. Every Sunday is Resurrection Sunday if we truly honor the Savior; every day is Resurrection day, actually. I am in a season where God has been revealing Himself to me in a new way. Scriptures I have read often and know from memory have taken on new meaning for me. I will attempt to share some of them here...
God is a spirit. John 4:24 expresses this fact and commands that we worship the Creator in spirit and truth. I grew up believing I was a body who had a spirit. I have come to realize that I am a spirit bound to this earth by my body. Death is simply the means by which my spirit will depart this earth. Where my spirit spends eternity is up to me.
When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, the third person of the triune God we worship. He becomes our roommate in our bodies, the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19f). This means that our life is to be an ongoing worship service inspired by the Spirit as we live empowered to carry forth the great commission. That is a tall order. I know we cannot be so Heavenly minded that we are no earthly good...that is also a scriptural paraphrase. We must work and care for children and be good citizens, so how can we also be in continuous worship?
Quietly. Calmly. Intentionally. I am not a theologian or a preacher, but I am a lifelong believer who continues to learn more about my Risen Savior. I grew up in a tradition that was charismatic and excited; where Amazing Grace was a fast-paced song. If you can scream at the top of your lungs for your favorite ball team, you can shout for eternal life, I take no issue with that. I do, however, now appreciate that we do not need to "whip up" the Spirit. We should actually wait on the Spirit to "whip" us up.
If we wait on the Lord, as we are instructed to do (Psalms, Romans, Hebrews, etc.), He will give us the words to say in a difficult situation. When we submit our human emotions to the Spirit, He will fight for us, get justice for us, and exact vengeance for us. He will reveal what is True so that we do not become well-intentioned but misguided. This leads us back to the Way to walk in worship.
Jesus said He was the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He said only He can lead us to the Father and eternal life (John 14). It is the blood of the Perfect Sacrifice that cleanses and heals us (Hebrews 9). It is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that gives us the power to overcome sin and lead others to Jesus (Romans 15). Communion with the Spirit, I conclude, is the only way to worship God through the Truth.
We need to seek the Lord alone every day in order to know Him as He intended. In our showers and cars and prayer closets is where we can foster a faith that is deeply personal and powerful. Jesus built His own relationship with the Father through individual prayer. We are joint heirs with Jesus which is both a privilege and a responsibility. Our prayers need to be for the things that matter to the Savior: little children (Matthew 19), the sick (Philippians 1), and the lost. There needs to be an honesty and pure intention for good when we pray. Of course, we cannot neglect praying together, but effective prayer begins with a submitted life (James 5).
Jesus is in constant intercessional prayer on our behalf. When we pray with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, we can join Him in prayer for our own life and families and futures. If I pray with anyone, I want it to be Jesus. A yielded life seeking agreement with the Savior is a life lived in Spirit and in Truth. The only way we can know the Truth is if the Spirit leads us to Him. We walk in worship when we seek to know the heart of Jesus. Only then can we reflect His love and mercy to the world in which we are aliens and strangers... and, it is getting stranger every day. Be encouraged, brothers and sisters, we will not walk perfectly in worship, but Jesus did and His perfection has been applied, Hallelujah! Our job is to do better today than yesterday.
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