Hindrance to Worship

Worship is a big deal. Worship is a big deal in a true biblical sense. God deserves and demands our minds attention and our hearts affection. Worship is also a big deal in another way. In today’s church, there is much conflict over worship. Quarreling over style of worship, such as whether to have traditional hymns or contemporary praise and worship, is common place in many churches. Even when style is agreed upon, people often feel the liberty to criticize those leading worship. It seems that if someone comes to church and does not feel the presence of the Lord during worship, it must be the worship team’s fault. After all, who is left to blame? If the worship at your church constantly falls short of your expectations, I would like to suggest that maybe it has nothing to do with the style of worship or the worship team. Maybe there is another problem much closer to home.

In Matthew 5, Jesus warns of the dangers of  the inner attitudes of the heart (i.e. anger). Even a slip of the tongue that leads us to say “you fool” to our brother, is enough to warrant eternity in hell according to Jesus (Matt 5:22).  It is in addressing this that Jesus says, “²³ Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, ²⁴ leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”  Bringing a gift to the altar was an act of worship. Jesus says if you said something to offend your brother or even if you have anger in your heart toward your sister, deal with that before you come to worship God.  We often downplay how important our horizontal relationships are. God does not.  The Lord is saying, “Before you come and expect intimacy with Me in worship, get right with the people in your life.”

Let’s not enter into worship haphazardly. Many people get up on Sunday morning and do not even consider preparing their hearts to worship the Lord. Make it a practice to let the Lord examine your heart before you come to worship.  Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you any sin that has not been confessed. And of course if you know of anyone that you have hurt, or any relationship that needs to be reconciled, do what you can to reconcile that relationship. In being obedient to God we are drawing near to God, and if we draw near to God He will draw near to us.