Many folks have been participating in the 21 Days of Connection and seeking the Lord for a multitude of things. This is good and right and worthy of our participation, but we are not finished. As you wind down this 21 days, don’t give up in seeking Lord and by all means make sure that we give the Lord thanks as we offer our worship for his grace to us.
- Make sure you have been keeping a journal of what you have been asking the Lord for.
- Take note in your journal of how the Lord has met you and kept you and made himself known and delivered you and grew your faith and on and on and on.
- Whatever you do, don’t skip out on gathering with the church on Sunday. Gather to sing to the Lord in thanksgiving and worship of King Jesus.
- Gather with anticipation of how the Lord would be exalted among a bunch of people desperately seeking the Lord and not as a bystander observing but as a participant bringing great praise to Jesus. Be ready to be an instrument used by the Spirit to uplift and encourage someone in the faith as an active participant. He may send someone to you. I’m really anticipating the energy produced by walking the Spirit to be too legit to quit (Hammer reference). Be ready for a full-bodied worship experience.
In light of anticipating a cool worship experience, I’d like to wrap up with a little exhortation about the singing part of worship. Worship is more than singing but worship no doubt includes singing. One particular verb in its imperative form shows up 45 times in command for God’s people to sing to the Lord. There are other words translated “sing” that show up as well in the imperative form. In fact the command to sing shows up over 100 times. The point is that singing to the Lord is a command.
Singing to the Lord is not an option. It’s an obedience issue.
God himself is the singer. Zephaniah 3:17 reminds us that the Lord exults over us and shouts over us and does so with loud singing. God scream sings over his people (I scream sing because I do not sing well, so I scream sing loudly in hopes that God enjoys me trying to be like him in singing loudly and faith that my effort is received and rewarded as purchased in the gospel for me). So the command to sing to the Lord is a command that image bearers who now know the one in whose image they are created are to reflect back to God the joy he shows in them.
One who refuses to sin is one who has not understood or does not care that God delights in his people. Can that person truly be saved? To be saved is to know God, be rescued from God’s wrath, to have a new heart and new desires that the Spirit puts in that new heart. One of those new desires is to obey the Lord, and if the Lord commands we sing, then it’s not optional. So, if the desire is not there then is the heart transformed? I can’t answer that question in this post, but it’s a question one has to ask. If a person won’t worship in song have they been transformed by the gospel?
When you gather Sunday, make sure you have recounted how God has been faithful and come ready to obey the command to sing to the Lord with the gusto God sings over his people in Zephaniah 3:17, hear the word preached, respond in obedience and go out to keep obeying daily. God will be glorified and your joy in him will be increased.
I’m adrenalized to gather with my family, TRC, this Sunday.
Theology in the Dirt 