“Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens!
Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness!
Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp!
Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe!
Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!”
~Psalm 150
Only 5 days after announcing the provincial move to level orange, we find ourselves like a child watching a birds nest, as an egg tips out of a nest, crashing onto the ground below; the sudden arrival of level red.
We hear restriction, isolation, shutdown.
The levels change. The higher the level, the increasing level of intensity in our precautions.
What if we reframe these words in the context of our heart’s intensity of worship?
Because those same words also have the connotation of focus, separation, and ceasing.
Christina Fox defines worship as “honoring and exalting our great God. It is thanking and praising Him for who He is and what He has done.” It includes our prayer, our study, and our song. When we gather at home for worship, are we still bringing the same intensity into our worship?
What does a level red intensity look like in our worship?
Focused Worship
For those of us who are married, perhaps we remember the days of courting, when we were the object of our spouses undivided attention; we were given gifts, we were singled out and special in comparison to most (if not all) others. In our worship, the focus is on the object, the Lord God. “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
"For you are great and do wondrous deeds; You alone are God” (Ps 86:10)
How focused is our heart toward the worship of God alone?
Separate of the World
Many of us are worshipping from home again today. The world may be sleeping in, cooking brunch or playing video games, we are called to be different. Even if we can’t go out, are we still taking the time and effort to worship? For “he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (2 Cor 5:15). A life dedicated to following Jesus will be different from the world around us.
How separate are we from the world?
Ceasing From Sin
The goal of our faith journey is Christlikeness, this is the process of sanctification. Learning to turn our back on sin, to confess and repent, that our lives would reflect the love and selflessness of Jesus. Is this the desire of our heart as we worship? To continue to draw nearer to Him, for Him to prune the dead areas of our life, that they would become new again.
How are we growing in our struggle with sin?
As we worship today, let’s endeavor to remember that we are still part of His church. It’s a short season we will endure, and although life begins to look different again, may the words of Paul encourage us, “to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph 4:1-3).
How is your heart’s level of intensity for worship?