We all want our worship to be pleasing to God, trying our best to make it as excellent and good as possible. But just how do we make it acceptable and pleasing to Him?
Excellent worship
We all have various ways in making our worship as good as possible. Worship leaders try vocalising and reaching high notes without fail. Worship musicians do their best to hit the notes at the right time and with gusto.
The congregation, depending on how they express their worship, do their best, too, with the traditional and conservative ones doing their best to sing the songs well and without fail, and the more contemporary and modern ones lifting their hands to kingdom come and jumping like they've been jolted by a surge of electricity.
Don't get me wrong – I love both expressions, but the Bible tells us that God looks at things completely different compared to man. We all look at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. This simply means that how we worship outwardly doesn't really count that much. What counts is the state of our heart.
How's your heart?
Even if we come to church and worship, or stay inside our prayer closets for hours on end, if we don't have the right heart, God will not be pleased with our worship. While Hebrews 11:6 tells us that without faith we will never please the Lord, faith alone will not please Him. As His people, we should do what He wants.
Amos 5:21-24 gives us a very sobering account of what matters to the Lord. There He says:
"I hate, I despise your feast days, and I do not savor your sacred assemblies. Though you offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them, nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings. Take away from Me the noise of your songs, for I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments. But let justice run down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream."
God's character
Friends, lip service is of no avail to God who sees our innermost thoughts. We should all realise that righteousness and justice are the foundation of God's throne (see Psalm 89:14), and these things matter to Him.
Let us strive, therefore, to live lives that are fitting for the calling to which we are called: to be children of God (see Ephesians 4:1). Let us make peace with our brothers before offering our worship to God (see Matthew 5:23-24). And when we worship, let us lift up holy hands without sin (see 1 Timothy 2:8).
