Search me, O God and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting! Psalm 139: 23-24.
When I surrendered my life to Christ at age eleven, I had a deep desire to become more like Christ. As time went on, I faced challenges that would distract my focus from Christ, but I could always count on worship to realign my heart and mind. Very simply defined, worship is our response to who God has been and will continue to be. It’s in this response where we consider the attributes of God we realize how deeply unworthy we are to be children of God. We must submit ourselves to Christ, allowing the Holy Spirit to do a deep work in us—changing and transforming us into the image of God.
Does your church have a time of response in corporate worship? Believe it or not, some churches don’t have a time to respond at any point in their service. A lack of response is simply not worship. There is no worship without response. The prophet Isaiah deals with this clearly in Isaiah chapter 6 when he responds to the Lord saying, “Here Am I Lord, send me!” As we behold God’s glory, we are “being transformed into the same image.” (Colossians 3:10).
When I was thirteen, I was thankful for a time of response. During a youth week at my church, I was confronted with the realization that God was calling me to surrender my life to vocational ministry. It was there, after struggling with whether or not I was being called, that God revealed to the verse Jeremiah 1:7, “Do not say I am only a youth, for you will go to everyone I send you to and speak whatever I tell you.” In that moment I was confronted with the call—the call that asked me to be obedient and surrender my life to whatever (and wherever) the Lord had for me.
I cannot fathom not being confronted regularly with the realization that I need to constantly renew my mind (Romans 12:1-2) so I match up with our Creator. If your church does not have a time of reflection/response/invitation, it’s time to make that a priority. Yes, it means we must confront our sin but the cost of discipleship demands that we align ourselves with the truth and walk in it. We cannot worship without response, because unless we humble ourselves before a Holy God we will never be able to worship Him in SPIRIT and truth.