Who's getting Who's Attention?

Whenever you are leading people in worship, there is an important question that we must ask ourselves. Am I coming to get God's attention, or am I letting Him get mine? How you answer this question will totally impact how you lead worship.

For instance, if you feel that you have to get God's attention, your worship will be all about trying to impress Him (as if we were capable of that). We would say things like, "Come on people, if you bless the Lord He will come and answer our prayers" or you will clap and shout and dance (kind of like the prophets of Baal) until you have worked yourself up into a tizzy. That approach borders on mysticism. It says that if I say the right thing and do the right thing, God will not be angry or dispassionate towards my situation and will come and intervene on my behalf.

But if you come in with the approach to worship that God is trying to get your attention, then your worship may look a little different. The old chorus says, "Turn your eyes upon Jesus.... and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace." Is it possible that spiritual things happen in worship because we get spiritual. In other words, is it possible that James was correct (which he was) when he wrote that "if we draw near to God, God draws near to us." So when you lead worship, you are not trying to impress God. Instead you are taking a group of people and hopefully leading them from their carnal approach to things and letting them see God for who He really is. God is never dispassionate towards us. He wants to be involved in every part of our life. But worship that the Father is looking for is in "spirit" and in "truth." Both of these things are eternal things, not temporal. So I think God is looking for people that will get their mind off of the temporal and earthly things, and worship in His arena - spirit.

So when you are leading worship, take serious your responsibility not to get God to come down to your level, but rather help your people get up to His.