Many who regularly attend worship gatherings struggle to actually worship. I wrote previously about the fact that many struggle for the simple reason that they aren’t worshiping—they come for entertainment or to be “uplifted” rather than to offer worship to the Lord. The discussion of that problem provides a segue to the next problem—we often have problems worshiping as a body because we don’t worship apart from those gatherings.
There are two kinds of worship—congregational or corporate (what we usually think of as “worship services”) and individual worship.
Individual worship is what Paul talks about when he says we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God (Romans 12:1-2). It is being aware of our Lord’s presence with us 24/7, and being able to say to him, “Lord, I do this as an act of worship for you” about everything we do. “Lord, I say this as worship for you” about everything we say. (Colossians 3:17). It is what Paul refers to when he tells slaves to serve their masters wholeheartedly, “as if you were serving the Lord, not mere men.” (NIV)
There is a direct relationship between individual and corporate worship. Corporate worship sets a spiritual tone for the individual worship we carry out during the week. And individual worship prepares us to come together and worship God as a body.
When we fail to worship God in our daily lives, it should be no surprise that we have difficulty when we come together to worship God as a church. In fact, when this happened in the nation of Israel, God’s response was to tell them to stop offering corporate worship until they changed their lives and worshiped him in their daily lives (Isaiah 1:10-17)
One of the problems we have in worship is we aren’t spiritually prepared. We can’t live life as our own Lords, then expect to worship The Lord effectively. We have to follow God’s own directions and repent, living our life for Him. When we do, our worship gatherings change because we are truly worshiping Him.
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