DAILY DEVOTION No. 25

                                      THE HEART OF A WORSHIPPER  (Pt 2)

Carrying on from our last devotion, we look at further traits of a person with a worshipping heart.

3. Our Worship Must Be Authentic

Worship must come from a genuine heart of love towards God. Not coming before God with any masks, but being real and transparent before Him and His people. Not just putting on pretence, but being an example to others of a person passionately in love with God. God is looking for the sincere and genuine worship that comes from our knowledge of His holiness and purity, and from our own heart, pure and open before Him. Some people can live by a certain code of ethics or put on religious ceremony, and in the eyes of people they can appear to be righteous, but God knows the condition of their heart. They can’t fool him.

The secret to this is constantly presenting ourselves before Him as living sacrifices. The heart of a true worshipper says, “Lord come and touch every part of my life so that I will be true and honest before You and before others.” There are no ulterior motives, no hidden agendas, just a heart that desires that God be seen in every part of their life. Because of the character of Christ being formed in them and the integrity of heart, others want to emulate them.

  4. We Must Have A Repentant Heart

Those who have a heart to worship God come constantly with a repentant heart seeking His cleansing and knowing that it's only by His grace that they can enter into His presence. Hab.l:13 (a) says regarding God “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; You cannot tolerate wrong.” God is a holy God, he hates the very thought of sin. Because we can only approach Him when we are clean, repentance and purification must take place before we can worship Him in a proper manner.

As Psalm 24:3-4 says, it is only as we have clean hands and a pure heart, that we can ascend the hill of the Lord or stand in His holy place. We must keep short accounts with God. Sometimes we can overlook sin in our lives by justifying and accommodating it. Where once we had strong convictions and godly standards, we start to condone sin as acceptable. God is holy and to enter into His presence, we must have first dealt with sin in our lives and allowed God’s Spirit to wash over us and cleanse us. One of the reasons why God said that David was a man after his heart was because he would always come to God in repentance when he made mistakes.

5. We Must Have A Humble Heart

A true worshipper recognises that without Christ he can do nothing. God detests pride and if we ever get to a place where we think we've got it together and are better than others, we are in serious trouble. Eg. Two men going to the temple to pray - Luke 18:9-14. Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less. Pride is a seed that can take root so easily. Prov. 29:23 – “A man’s pride brings him low, but a man of lowly spirit gains honour." We need to learn to keep our heart and head in check. Prov. 4:23 – "Guard your heart for out of it are the issues of life." Pride says “look at me, I want the glory!” Instead of the glory going to the One who deserves it.

As a part of your church worship team, one of the biggest hurdles you will face is pride. To overcome this you need to not think too highly of yourselves, prefer others, and listen to advice and correction. When a congregation sees someone leading and all they can observe is that person’s ego, that is offensive. As a lead worshipper, if it is ever more about our talent than about our worship of God, then we are in serious trouble.

Challenge