The greatest commandment is to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind” (Luke 10:27.)
How does this relate to worshiping through singing? Do you love the Lord when you sing to or about Him? Do you give God musical praise with all your strength and effort? Do you sing the words in complete awareness of their meaning and mean it by singing with both your heart and mind?
It takes effort to truly worship. We can’t worship without putting all our strength, all our hearts and all our minds into the picture and expect it to be meaningful to God.
Paul said in the second half of 1 Corinthians 14:15:
“…I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my mind.“
How much worth do you give to God in worship? There is no worth in worship if our heart and mind aren’t in it. If our mind is not involved, then how can we worship in truth or in spirit? (John 4:23-24) The word “worship” comes from the old English word “worthship.”
What about the beloved hymn Amazing Grace? We may have sung it 1,000 times and know every verse in memory, yet never truly engaged our minds as we sang the words:
Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me!
Is God’s grace amazing to you? Is it a sweet sound? Do you sing the words with meaning, in thanksgiving to Him for loving you so much that He saved you?
Inspiring Passion for Jesus Christ 
You know, for almost 20 years now, I have been having a small group worship gathering at my house. I call it, ‘Worship Circle’, and we have it once a month. It’s so successful that we are considering making it bi-weekly! You can have it rotate to different folks’ houses, or whatever you want to do. We start out with some grub at about 5pm. Have a little eat and greet, fellowship time. Then about 7pm we all gather around with the guitars, keyboard and the djembes and ‘GET IN IT’! It is SO awesome! I don’t know what I would do without this in my life. And you can make it whatever you want with a bible study, outreach in that neighborhood, etc. But for ours, it’s just fellowship and a much more intimate worship setting than you could ever have with hundreds of people at church. It honestly has changed my life and all of those who attend it regularly. I would suggest this sort of thing to anyone with a heart to worship the Almighty!
Wayne
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@Wayne: Thanks for your comments!
To be honest, we had two devotionals with the choir and then ceased doing them. It was hard to keep people’s attention on this plus a hour to hour and a half of rehearsal (People seem to start tuning out within 45 minutes or so here lately, and currently we need to start going to longer rehearsals, Christmas music and all!) It felt a little forced even…
Sad, since I love doing these… One day it will work or something else will work (I have some “thoughts” via Scripture on my mind, and a newly planted passion to see each choir member flourish even more in the Lord (even though that are seasoned believers, which most are!) Don’t know where God will take this yet, but I’m praying and writing and reading His Word, seeking to see what God wants…
Also makes me think of how I would love to do asmall group worship study for church… Goodness, that’d be a good idea for an online small group for us worship leaders (and others of course!) …even if things are review, it will be that much more fuel for our passion for worship and worship leading!
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Amanda,
Good stuff! We haven’t done this yet, but it’s a great idea! What we have been doing is including a fairly brief background of the history of any hymns we include in that week’s service in our bulk email to the music ministry. Most of the hymns have full-blown testimonies and life-changing stories behind them! Very fascinating stuff to read!
But thanks for your encouragement! I might just start a devotional with my team now!
Bless you, sister!
Wayne Thomas
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Thanks for your input. 🙂
Glad the twitterfeed thing is working then! 😀
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These are great thoughts.
In the context of leading your choir through them, I think they will be extremely valuable. They, first and foremost are leading the church in what they are singing and they are implying that they believe and agree with what they are singing.
We too often worship the song and not the maker and in doing so, we can forget what the words even say. When we place our focus(mind) back into what we are singing, our worship is redirected to the maker and not the song.
Good thoughts.
Linked here via your twitter post. I think your getting the hang of it 🙂
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