Simple Worship

     Last year, entered my sophomore year and I was in an interesting time in my faith. I am still in that time, and it is a time of learning what I actually believe. I started looking into worship and what I believe about worship. I started to really question things like "How do I actually worship in Spirit and in Truth?" "What should I look for in a church's worship service?", and "Why do I feel like I will never be good enough for God?". I was incredibly overwhelmed with these questions and confusion because my whole life I went along with the worship music I heard in church and I always felt like "I got this faith thing down". There came a lot of shame as well because I have been trying to read through the whole Bible. Reading the whole Bible is great, but I am realizing things could be missed if we are not doing it with the intent to learn more about Jesus and grow in relationship with him.

    The first chapel of Junior year, I asked myself this question: "What if I just simply worshipped God?". I got so into the little things of worship that every question I had became a barrier to me simply worshipping God. It turned into me trying to figure out every little thing rather than just focusing on Jesus. It doesn't matter what is going on around me, whether I am at a worship night or it is 2 am and I am struggling to sleep. What if regardless of what is going on I just realized the need I have for Jesus? Every person who worships has a need for Jesus regardless of their life circumstances. There are people sinning in many ways in need of a savior. Our need for Jesus should only create in us a joy and a gratitude to worship him with our whole lives. I am worshipping God out of simple truth of his love, grace, justice, and salvation. Jesus loves me more than I could ever love him and when I fall short of his love, his love is unconditional. Jesus has shown grace to me constantly reminding me of his truth. Jesus is the one who has perfect judgment and perfect mercy. Jesus SAVED me when I thought I could never be saved. 

    Jesus is worthy of an embrace like the one of the women who poured out her perfumes and kissed Jesus' feet. I imagined embracing Jesus as the women did. This year, I want my worship of Jesus to be such an embrace of him because of all he has done for me. Jesus did not care about how much head knowledge the Pharisees had if they did not praise him in their hearts. Jesus noticed the heart more than the knowledge this woman had of God's word. She simply bowed down pouring out everything she had for Jesus.  God's word is a way for us to connect with God in learning more of who he is, but it is not something that should become an assignment to complete in a certain amount of time. 

    What will simple worship look like? For me, my worship will simply be a response to what God calls me to everyday. It could be time spent in my room meditating over his word, it could be drawing or creating as God created, or it could be being in fellowship praising with others. I no longer care about every little thing or if I am worshipping in a certain way, I care deeply about who I am worshipping. As a freshman, I said this "it doesn't matter how I worship; it matters who I worship". That is such a true statement because even in trying, our worship can turn more into a checklist or striving rather than seeking out Jesus. I am not worshipping in the state of confusion and frustration I was in last year as I was worried I wasn't worshipping God right; I am worshipping the Lord of lords, King of kings, the author of salvation, and my God. I am not focused on anything other than God, and just God this year.