Here I Am To Worship

We've been talking this evening at worship: what worship is, what it means to worship, how we worship.

 

Taken from the Old English 'weorthscipe' meaning worthiness, worship means to acknowledge the worth of. 

 

When we worship God, we are acknowledging who He is and, therefore, are acknowledging His worthiness.

 

But worship isn't something we do for half an hour in church on Sundays.  Or during the week when we listen to a 'worship' CD.  It's not even really about singing.

 

Yes, singing is a large and significant part of worship, but true worship is about living a life which acknowledges God's worthiness in all areas.

 

Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well:

"It's who you are and the way you live that count before God.  Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth.  That's the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship.  God is sheer being itself - Spirit.  Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration."

 

[John 4:24 MSG]

 

 

I love that line - those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. 

I love it and I am deeply challenged by it.  I'm not sure that I've very comfortable simply and honestly being myself: I'm not sure I feel enough.  Sometimes I like to dress myself up in different layers of disguise.  I'm not even sure I know what it means to be simply and honestly myself.

But I want to start to find out.

I want to say, as Tim Hughes sang, "Here I am to worship."

No pretense, no disguise, no distraction.  Not just here I am for 20 minutes.  But every day, every moment - here I am to worship.


 

 

 

 

Just As I Am

I've been having a sort out over the past few days and have rediscovered lots of my GCSE and A Level Art work.

One project that I worked on was called 'Embellish' and I looked at the way that we embellish things in life, especially ourselves - our appearances and our stories.

My sketchbook is full of black and white images (both photos and sketches), which I have painted over in bold colours and adorned with beads and sequins and fabric to illustrate the way we hide our true selves.

There is one black and white image of a naked woman which I have painted over with a bright pink sequinned dress.

In the same way that I have embellished the images in my sketchbook, we can embellish ourselves. Sometimes we feel that the naked truth won't be enough. Or we feel embarrassed or ashamed of the truth.

And so we cover up the truth with layers of embellishment. We layer on colour and beads and fabric and hide our true selves.

But God sees the truth. He sees through the layers and the embellishments and He loves us just the same.

I am slowly realising that God's love for me is not at all related to what I do or don't do. It's not related to the layers that I put on to make myself 'presentable', or to embellish myself.

It's about Him.

"We love because he first loved us."

[1 John 4:19 NIV]

As Mark Darcy says to Bridget Jones, "I like you.  Just as you are."

We have no need for embellishment or disguise, we can simply come as we are before God. And He will love and accept us just as we are.

Truth and Fear

Most students become firm friends with J.B. Fletcher, Dr Mark Sloane, Poirot and the cast of Neighbours and Doctors during their time at University.  For me, my relationship with J.B. is one that has lasted long after graduation and I still find myself enjoying 'Murder She Wrote' when it's on TV.

 

Whilst we have established a strong bond, it is not often that Jessica Fletcher speaks into my life.  However, I have just flicked the TV on to find myself half-way through an episode.  I haven't yet figured out what's going on or who's been accused of doing what to whom, but today, J.B.'s insightful and deductive powers have spoken straight to my heart.

 

Whilst interviewing one woman, she said -

"Why are you so afraid of telling me the truth?"

 

Shortly followed by,

"It seems that you're afraid of telling me something.  What are you leaving out?"

 

Why are you so afraid of telling me the truth?  What are you leaving out?

 

We all have things that we don't want other people to know.  We all edit and reshape and rephrase the 'truth' to make it more palatable.  For ourselves and for others. 

 

And we can edit the truth when we talk to God, too.  We can diminish our pain or our anger or our disappointment.  We can edit out our frustration with Him, or our doubt in His goodness.  We can sugar-coat the guilt we feel and disguise our need for His forgiveness.

 

But God desires us to be truthful, in the deepest, rawest of places -

 

        "What you’re after is truth from the inside out.
        Enter me, then; conceive a new, true life."

 

        [Psalm 51:6 MSG]

 

We can be scared of God and other people knowing the real truth about us, because we fear that we will be rejected - we won't be good enough.

 

We are afraid.

 

But the Bible says,

"There is no room in love for fear.  Well-formed love banishes fear.  Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love."

 

[1 John 4:18 MSG]

 

When we begin to grasp the depths of God's unconditional love for us, we don't need to be afraid.  We can tell the true truth about ourselves to God and others - even J.B. Fletcher. 

 

 

 

Becoming and Believing

I have just bought 'The Help' on DVD and am halfway through.  I read the book and watched it when it came out at the cinema, but I had forgotten some of the finer details of the plot.

 

The story is set in Jacksonville, Mississippi in the 60s, when racial tensions were high.  It explores life from the point of view of the 'help' - the coloured maids who work for the white families.

 

Their primary job is raising the children of these white families; indeed, they are more like parents to the children than their real parents. 

 

One of the main characters, Aibileen, looks after a small girl, Mae-Mobley.  Mae's own mother , Elizabeth, doesn't pay her much attention: she never hugs her or kisses her or spends time with her.  She never really looks at her or chats to her.  It is as if Elizabeth sees her daughter as a commodity or a status-symbol rather than a person.

 

It is Aibileen who instills a sense of self and self-worth in Mae-Mobley.  Every day, several times a day, Aibileen says to her,

"You is kind.  You is smart.  You is important."

 

And she teaches Mae to say these words to herself over and over until they sink in.

 

What we say to ourselves matters.  What we say about ourselves matters.

 

How often do we say negative or critical things to ourselves without really thinking about them?   

 

You're so stupid.  You'll never make it.  What are you thinking?  You're a failure.  You'll never measure up.  You're not good enough.

 

What we say about ourselves matters: it sinks into our skin and becomes a part of who we are.  Maybe not the first time we say it, but over time if we keep repeating the same messages, we will start to believe them.  Without questioning them.

 

After a while, they start to feel like the truth.

 

The Bible says,

"For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he."

[Proverbs 23:7 KJV]

 

We become what we believe about ourselves.

 

So we need to make sure the things we are thinking are right.

 

Each one of us is hand-crafted and carefully created.

"We are God's "masterpiece."

[Ephesians 2:10 NLT]

  

So let's make sure that's what we tell ourselves.