The Beauty of Worship
I must be honest. I love vacations with my family, but at the same time, I have a small sense of loss on vacation. Please don’t misunderstand. Time with my family revives me. Spending quality time with the bride of my youth, my treasure from the Lord, is invigorating to my soul. Playing with our four kids in a pool, or on a boat, or at an arcade springs joy from my heart. Traveling with my family and seeing the wonders of God’s creation is awe-inspiring. But there is one thing that I can’t do when I am on vacation. I can’t worship with my faith family.
Now I know this may sound convoluted and my vacations and time with family are not second-place trophies. This is not what I am saying in the least. But when I am away from our faith family, the family God has called us to, the family I have the great privilege to serve, I genuinely miss it. One of the things I love to do after time away is to simply walk into our worship center. I love to come to the house of the Lord. I love to be with God’s people, my people, my family. I love worshipping alongside my family in the presence of my faith family.
Worship is a beautiful and wonderful act on the part of the believer. Worship is a natural response on the part of the created to the creator. As believers, we are both created in the natural and the supernatural by the glory of God. I love worshipping the Lord in my devotional time, but I’m going to tell you something. There is something supernatural and powerful when the body of Christ gathers and worships the Lord.
One of my all-time favorite worship passages is Revelation 7:9-12.
After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; 10 and they cry out with a loud voice, saying,
“Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” 11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures; and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying,
“Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”
Can you imagine the scene, the splendor, the majesty? At the culmination of time and history, Jesus will return and establish is Kingdom and at the coronation of our great Savior we get to gather with all believers who have ever lived and all the angels in heaven and we get to sing praises to Jesus.
The beauty of worship will be at a crescendo and the church can finally, fully, and faithfully worship Jesus as we were meant to worship and as he deserves.
In his grace and mercy, Jesus allows us a small glimpse of this every week as we gather with the church. As the church gathers, Christ is exalted and lifted high. His glory is on full display as prayers are lifted up, voices raised high, and the word expounded. Beauty is shown during this time.
There is beauty in worship, and it is a grace of God that we are privileged to participate. May we view the opportunity to gather with the saints as one of the blessings, and value the time together praising our Lord as meaningful.