Faithful Worship: Impractical Worship

There have been many times that I attended a church worship service and gotten just what I needed. The stresses and challenges of the preceding week had been just about overwhelming. I went to church, expressed my worries to God during the worship service, and walked away feeling refreshed.

Other times, I have attended a church worship service and gotten more than what I needed. The preceding week had been uplifting and encouraging. Life was enjoyable and I felt like things were under control. I went to church, expressed gratitude to God during the worship service, and walked away on a spiritual “high.”

With that said, there have been other times when I worshiped and felt nothing. There was no spiritual pick-me-up to get me through the coming challenges. I left church having to trust that God would see me through the difficulties even though I didn’t get a warm-fuzzy feeling in the church service. Other times, I knew I had been blessed, expressed heartfelt gratitude to God through worship, and felt nothing in return. I left the worship service feeling as if I had put a lot of energy into a heartfelt “thank you” and God didn’t have the courtesy to say the obligatory, “You’re welcome.”

So what do we do with that? What do we do when we worship and walk away feeling nothing spiritually? Well, I want to propose that we keep doing it anyway. My opinion: I think it is important to worship God through the best of times and the worst of times, through sickness and health, when we feel spiritually high and when we feel spiritually low. My reason: Christian worship is an issue of faithfulness and not practicality.

Christians worship God because it is part of the faithful life. We do not worship because we get something out of the action. We worship God because God is the ultimate “end-all-be-all” and it is totally appropriate to declare the ultimate worth of that “end-all-be-all.” Christians worship God because worshiping God is right and good. Again, we do it to be faithful.

This might be hard to understand in our hyper-consumerist world. Everywhere we go and everything we do is built to give us something. We go to work to get paid and, hopefully, some fulfillment out of the job. We watch movies to be entertained, get our mind off of work, and relax. We go to the grocery store to…well…get groceries. The list goes on and on. All of these activities are fine and dandy, but they are practical activities. We do such activities with our desired end in mind. In other words, we do them in order to get what we need or want out of the action.

Christian worship, in contrast, does not begin with our desired end in mind. It is not practical. We worship God as an end in and of itself. Warm fuzzy feelings are not a commodity that we “get” out of the God dispenser. Therefore, we worship in order to be faithful.

So let me challenge you today. Regardless if you feel a spiritual “high” or not, be faithful in your worship. Let your worship be an expression of your gratitude simply because you are grateful. Let your worship be an expression of your obedience, simply because you are obedient. Let your worship be an expression of your discipleship simply because you are one of Jesus’ disciples. If I know anything, I know this: Jesus is worth it.