But He answered
and said to them, “I tell you that if these should
keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.”
(Luke 19:40)
That was one of the first verses we looked
at in the worship workshop in the 5th Safehaven retreat,
and this stuck with me. So why does God even want us to
worship Him, and what is the place of worship in the context
of our lives and gatherings?
And this was what we have explored during
this brief workshop conducted by Alan Lau on the subject
of worship and leading worship in small groups, together
with practical means and structures of facilitating worship
in cell groups.
To me, one of the key messages that I
took home from this session was that the act of worship
is simply the expression of our relationship with God. God
wishes to commune with us, and worship is part of that relationship
where we come to grips with the fact that He is the focus
of our lives.
One of the essential points made was that
you cannot worship until you have been that particular place
with God yourself, and that I thought was the beauty of
our worship with God. Be it in the valley, or be it on the
mountain top, God is there with us, and we can still offer
our humblest act of worship. Thus there is that time of
thanksgiving and rejoicing, and that time of reflection
and stillness in and with God.
However, even as we examined our lives
as an act of worship, or simply examining the process of
worship itself (which is associated with music and singing
in the church context), there remains one of the most important
issues of whether our heart is in that right place with
God. I think Alan has summed it all, at the end of the session,
rightly and aptly through the song “Heart of Worship”.
To me, that is the place I want to come back in my life
and worship – that place is where it is all about Jesus.
‘You search much deeper
within
Through the way things
appear
You’re looking into
my heart
I’m coming back to
the heart of worship
And it’s all about
You
It’s all about You
Jesus’
(extracted from ‘Heart
of Worship’)