Have you read my worship story? If you have, you know that my initial compulsion to go digging in the Bible about worship was a dramatic change in perspective I gained during a time of extended worship.
You see, it was during a challenging season of life that I found myself at a conference worshiping 12 hours in 3 days – 12 hours focusing less on me and more completely on my amazing God – and was blown away. By what? By the powerful effect of gazing intently at my Lord and offering to Him all I could in worship.
Boom – my life was changed. Not only was my perspective on my difficult situation dramatically altered, but my perspective on who God is and my worship of Him will never be the same.
We have so many great Biblical examples of the change in perspective brought about when people bowed their hearts and minds before God in worship.
As David beheld the indescribable glory of the Lord, he was struck by his own utter unworthiness in comparison.
“When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained; What is man that You should take thought of him, and the son of man that You should care for him?” (Psalm 8:3-4).
It was clearly a You-are-God-and-I-am-not moment. We all need more of those!
And in Psalm 73, we get to read the struggles of Asaph in his own words:
“For I was envious of the arrogant as I saw the prosperity of the wicked” (v.3) and “When I pondered to understand this, it was troublesome in my sight” (v.16).
So the change in his perspective is even more profound in verse 17:
“Until I came into the sanctuary of God; then I perceived their end.”
What a perfect picture of the power of laying it all down before God’s throne! He went from “I was senseless and ignorant; I was like a beast before You” (v.22) to “My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (v.26).
And we can’t forget the experience of Paul and Silas’s painful, yet worshipful, imprisonment in Acts 16. They teach us that regardless of what our chains look like, God is still God. He never changes. His mercies are new every morning, and His grace is unending. And there is transformation power when we choose to remember who God is and worship Him! (If you haven’t read my post about this incredible story, find it here.)
Being in God’s presence, and therefore being reminded of who He is in all His glory, brings about a powerful transformation of our perspective on everything else in our life.
The things that weigh so heavily on us when we’re looking at them with our earthly mind’s eye are supernaturally lifted in the light of declaring who He is.
It’s a healing power for the heart and mind. It’s a way to peace, joy, hope, and strength not found anywhere else. And the things that we tend to hold as most valuable – that seize our greatest affections – quickly fade as the light of His glorious majesty and holiness penetrates our hearts in worship.
Changed perspective – God’s perspective. It’s powerful.
How have you experienced a change in perspective as a result of worshiping God?
[Reminder: We don’t enter worship in order to receive the blessing of God’s power in our lives. He is God, and we worship Him for who He is to us, not what He’ll do for us. It’s not a consumer activity that says, “I give so I can receive.” But it’s one of selflessly giving ourselves to the God who selflessly gave Himself for us.]
Much of this post is an excerpt from my book, Worship and the Word. If you want to learn more about Worship and the Word or where to buy it, this is where you go to do that!
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