“Worship is the strategy by which we interrupt our preoccupation with ourselves and attend to the presence of God.”- Eugene Peterson
There is a story I have seen online, perhaps it is true, or perhaps it’s a bit of a parable. Either way, it communicates something true: a person walks up to the pastor following a Sunday service and says, “Pastor, I didn’t like worship today.” The pastor responds, “That’s okay, we weren’t worshiping you.”
Worship is the default setting of every human heart. But right worship only occurs when in His kindness God reveals himself, and we respond with our whole lives: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” - Romans 12:1-2
If our worship is right - worship fueled and informed by the person of God - there will be no self-preoccupation.
Come, Holy Spirit, lift our eyes to the person and work of Jesus. May our worship be right, and may our lives be laid down. In Christ’s name, amen.
Worshiping,
AB