If worship is powerful–that is, if kneeling before Almighty God in humility and rising to praise Him in gratitude and going forth to obey Him in faithfulness has power in the world to change lives and redirect society–then the enemy will be working to put a stop to it, whispering lies about worship.
Count on that.
If God uses our worship to transform sinners, starting with us, then the enemy use lies about worship to do all in his power to neutralize it. So–how is your worship these days? Are you working at worship, at learning to humble yourself and praise Him more effectively? Are you giving yourself anew to the Savior throughout the day, every day?
Notice the one question we did not ask: Are you getting anything out of your worship? Scripture does not allow us to ask that. We are promised nothing from worship. In worship, we do the giving. We give Him praise and prayers, offerings and love, our time and our attention, and ultimately ourselves.
Warren Wiersbe used to say, “Worship pays. But if you worship for the pay, it won’t pay.”
What has the evil advisor told you in the secret recesses of your mind and heart to dissuade you from worship?
“God is Spirit. And they who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24).
“Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; tremble before Him all the earth” (Psalm 96:9).
16 Satanic Lies About Worship
1. Worship is all about you.
You’ll need a worshipful setting, worshipful music, in a building with worshipful architecture. The leaders of the worship service must do things just right, otherwise, if you do not worship, the fault is all theirs.
2. You should be “getting something” out of worship.
If you leave the church campus unable to identify what you “got out” of the service, someone has failed you mightily.
3. Worship is irrelevant; it doesn’t matter.
Millions of Americans are buying into these lies about worship. All you have to do is see how most people skip church altogether on Sundays.
4. Only exciting, emotional worship matters.
If it’s not loud, fast, and intense, it doesn’t count.
Listen to people put down the more traditional, more restrained, more formal type of worship and you will know that lie is being bought into. We speak of worship services being dull, dead, sleep-inducing, and cold. One wonders if it ever occurs to us that the Father in Heaven alone judges worship.
5. Boring worship does not count.
6. Worship matters only inside the church building.
7. You can worship on the creek bank as well as you can in church.
8. The quality of your worship does not matter; all that matters is you’re giving it to God.
Read the Old Testament book of Malachi to see the folly of this. People were bringing diseased animals to the temple as their offerings. The Heavenly Father was/is no fool; He understands an insult when one is given.
