One of the major problems with our worship is that we evaluate it by asking the wrong question. “Did you enjoy worship?” we might ask someone who’s just attended a church service. But the point of worship is not that we enjoy it although certainly we should, but that God is pleased by it and honored through it.
A better question would be, “Did God enjoy your worship?” … Or Maybe A better question would be, “Did you enjoy God’s Mercy .. and celebrate it today? .. Most of us have the idea when we worship in church that the preacher is the actor, God is the prompter telling him what to say, and the congregation is the audience … But this is wrong. In worship, God is the audience, and the congregation is on stage. The preacher is simply a prompter, helping the people focus their attention on God. If worship is true and God-honoring, He is blessed by every hymn sung, every word proclaimed, every gift given, every testimony spoken and every secret thought shared with God from the depth of your heart. It is all about GOD … and all for Him alone.
No one enjoys the feeling of brokenness, but we can’t ignore its benefits to spiritual growth. Being broken gives us an entirely new perspective on the Lord’s plan for our lives. You see, enjoying a steady, uninterrupted stream of blessings has an interesting effect on most people: It distorts our view of the Father, often leaving us to assume He exists for us.
We ask the Lord for .. healing … success .. financial security … new desires .. homes .. cars … We ASK GOD to bless our family and our relationships … save our marriages .. we ASK .. and ASK … and ASK .. and ask and ask.
And the truth is, much of the time we aren’t really talking to God at all. In our mind, we’ve replaced Him with some sort of cosmic errand boy .. santa claus .. we tell God all about what we want and then send Him off to get it for us.
In all of this, who is actually at the center of our prayers? It certainly isn’t Almighty God .. our Eternal Savior .. The Creator of the Uuniverse — No, instead we find ourselves at the center of these prayers. Therefore, the end result is the subtle belief that God exists for our benefit, a far cry from the reality of His Holiness and Divinity.
This distortion breaks the Lord’s heart and leads us far away from truly knowing Him for who He is.
The antidote for this self-centered idolatry is brokenness. When God says “No,” when He takes away instead of adding more, when He divinely manages what we have, how much we have, and how long we have it, He is helping us keep our eyes on Him.