Worship Expressed

My First Memories of Worship

My first experience of worship happened in the 1980s at a relatively small Presbyterian church. Outside of hearing the same woman say amen weekly, the worship is what I remember most. The choir dressed in their colorful robes would sing hymnals. I loved the hymns, but the mood was always somber, and to a 10-year-old, lacked any excitement. Years later, at the age of 19, I attended a church that I would consider charismatic. I never knew what to expect on a given Sunday. One day someone could be lying on the floor weeping after worship, while the next week, you might see someone running around the church screaming hallelujah.

It was here that God was drawing me to himself. I began to participate in worship in ways that I had never thought possible. Unlike what I experienced as a child, this choir had energy, and the words that they sang pierced my heart. Tears would flow as I sat in the pews reflecting on the message I had just heard. As I worshiped, I found myself raising my hands while weeping with joy and telling God how great and mighty he is. For the first time in my life, I recognized that Jesus is Lord and that I was free in him.

Why am I doing this?

How I worshiped was, for the most part, a reflection of what I was experiencing internally. My heart was worshiping the Lord, and my body was responding to this worship. As time passed and the scriptural reading became a regular rhythm in my life, I would come across verses like Psalm 41:1 that says, "Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy."And 1 Timothy 2:8, "I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling."I realized that along with the command to worship God, different expressions of worship are throughout the bible. I was free to raise my hands, shout amen and say, "Glory to his name."

Praise God.

This is How I Do It

John says in John 4:23-24, "But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." I hope that we first worship God in spirit and in truth, and when we come to the Lord, we do it with a heart that recognizes its brokenness and human limitations and our desperate need for a savior. From this point, I hope that you can experience the freedom I did in any of the many physical expressions of worship that flow out of the true worship of our King. For me, I will continue to raise my hands, shout amen and let the tears stream down my face.

Submitted by: Louis Arnold