Connected to God in Worship

(Part 01 – Properly Planned) 

close to God
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“Bible Reflection from Luke 7:36-38”

 

Luke 7:36-38 (CEV)

 

36 A Pharisee invited Jesus to have dinner with him. So Jesus went to the Pharisee's home and got ready to eat.

37  When a sinful woman in that town found out that Jesus was there, she bought an expensive bottle of perfume.

38 Then she came and stood behind Jesus. She cried and started washing his feet with her tears and drying them with her hair. The woman kissed his feet and poured the perfume on them.

 

 

Young adult often experience this.  For those of you who are now adults, you may has also experienced this feeling before.  These are the times when you fall in love.

 

 

You like someone, then you try to approach him. But when you are near to him, and you try to talk about something, just wanted to open some conversation, it’s very difficult to start.

 

Sometimes the conversation becomes so boring, sometimes you don't know what to talk to the person you like at all. It's so hard to feel close to him.

 

Even though you are very close physically, you do not feel close to him or her. You feel disconnected.

 

This happens because communication is not well established. In a relationship, if communication does not occur, then we will not be able to enjoy the relationship.

 

 

Are we aware that Worship is also a communication between two people who love each other, between God who loves you and you who love God?

 

Have you ever attended a service, you were there, praising God, but you didn't feel anything?

 

You look to the left, amazed to see someone praising God with a raised hand.

 

You look to the right, there are other people who are praising God with enthusiasm and clapping their hands.

 

Behind you, you hear someone praising God with deep tears.

 

But you don't feel anything. You don't feel God is near and present in a worship. You feel disconnected with God.

 

What is wrong?

 

 

Wouldn't worship every Sunday be so fun, if you could always feel God was present and close to you?

 

Isn't it wonderful if every Sunday, in worship, you can feel God touch your heart, and you come home with God's blessings?

 

 

Let's look at a character in the Bible, a woman in Luke 7:36-38.  

 

Who even though she only visited the Lord Jesus briefly, but she felt that she was so close to God, she felt accepted by God as she is, and God changed her life.

 

 

Because what this woman does is what we need to do in order to feel closeness to God in every worship.

 

 

#1 Must Be planned (v. 37)

 

The first thing we have to realize is, this woman planned her meeting with the Lord Jesus. This is an action plan, not a sudden occurrence. He knew that the Lord Jesus was in Simon's house, so he prepared himself, then he went there, to meet the Lord (v. 37).

 

The problem is that we often feel that the feeling that God is present in worship, the feeling that God is so close to us in worship, happens suddenly, without being able to predict it beforehand.

 

But that is not always the case.

 

 

Sometimes we can feel God is present and so close to us, sometimes not.

 

Maybe we felt that last week God wanted to meet us, but this week maybe not.

 

It is true that in the Bible there are also recorded stories of people who met God personally without their planning ahead. And indeed every believer has a time when he meets God personally unexpectedly.

 

(Some met God at church, hospital, funeral home, by the river, on the side of the road, etc.).


However, if we desire to be able to meet personally with the Lord on a regular basis, I believe we need to plan our meeting with Him.

 


Lately I realize that there are many people who come to worship without the aim of meeting God personally.

 

Some came to worship because it was a habit, some came because of peer pressure (being phone, being reminded, picked up),

 

Or someone may come because they have a “schedule” in the ministry (perhaps as a WL, singer, greeter, or others).

 

But we often forget that the reason we come to worship is to meet God.

 

 

 

It's no wonder, then, that when we come to worship without the right purpose, we wonder, "Why don't I feel anything?"

 

The problem is that we may plan to come to worship, but not plan to come to meet God.

 

 

So plan to meet with God every week, not just for a church service.

 

Prepare everything that is needed to meet God, even the clothes we will wear, but especially our hearts.

 

 

After all, the word "worship" itself in the Bible does not mean coming to join a series of worship services, but it does come to meet God.

 

In the OT, the word "worship": shachah, whice mean: to “come bowing down before a king”.

 

In the NT, the word “worship”: proskuneo, which mean: comes to an emperor to kiss his feet.

 

So, have we come to worship all this time to meet God, our King, to worship Him sincerely?

 

Do we long to come to worship God to the point of kissing His feet?

 

 

This will be seen in the way we worship. Like:

 

  • Are we late coming to worship?
  • Are we wearing proper clothes?
  • Do we attend worship with the proper attitude?

 

Let's learn to plan our meeting with God every time we will worship.

 

 

#2 Making it a personal experience (v. 38)

 

The second thing that is also important is how this woman approached the Lord Jesus in a personal way.

 

 

He didn't approach God the same way other people did. He approached God in a way that came out of his own heart.

 

She used her hair, tears, everything in her presence to approach the Lord Jesus and express her love for God.

 

This method is clearly not suitable for Simon, the host. But for this woman, this is a way that suits her, according to her heart's content.

 

 

Sometimes we misunderstand that worship in which God touches us deeply and personally will occur when we do what other people do.

 

This person appears to be successful in worshiping God in worship, so we must imitate the method.

 

He praised God with enthusiasm, me too. He clapped his hands, me too. He raised his hand, me too.

 

We may tempted to use other people's ways to express our personal feelings to God.

 

 

I once read about a servant of God who sometimes did not praise God by singing out loud. What he sometimes does is use the words in the words of the song to pray silently to God.

 

So sometimes he doesn't sing, he prays with the words of the song lyrics. For him, this is a personal expression for him to do in worship.

 

 

Then, does this mean that each of us must find our own unique ways to worship God? It doesn't have to be.

 

But don't just imitate other people's methods.

 

 

What I mean is to make worship a truly personal experience. Whatever methods we use, let them leave your heart.

 

- When another person (worship leader or the preacher) leads the prayer: make his prayer words, into your own prayer words. Tell God, it's true God, what he prayed for.

 

- when we praise God, make the lyric of the songs, make it seem like a song of your own creation.

 

Make worship as a personal experience to meet God, even though we are together in the worship room. 


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Read Also: Connected to God in Worship - Part 02