Day 1
Worship with your HEART
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” Mark 12:30
But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected Him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7
“Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God” Matthew 5:8
Worship must first be a posture of your heart. The word “heart” occurs in 765 verses in the KJV bible. It’s listed first in the greatest commandment given to man. Physically, our heart is the epicenter of life. It is the organ that circulates our blood. Our ability to live, move, and breathe is contingent upon a healthy heart. Our heart is a place of constant exchange. Blood and oxygen are exchanged – old for new. Pathways flow from our heart to every part of our body; from our finger tips to our toes, we are connected and held together in our heart. The same is true emotionally and spiritually – our capacity to live in, move in, and breathe in God’s presence is contingent upon a healthy heart. The bible says that when we accept the free gift of salvation we are covered by the blood of Jesus. His blood covers ours – His life-giving blood is exchanged for the stale blood in our hearts. Worshipping God starts in our heart. If we’re hostile or bitter toward God in our heart, how can we bow down to adore Him? If we’re proud or self-serving in our heart, how can we submit to Him? We can sing at the top of our lungs and lift our hands but if our heart isn’t postured in worship it means nothing. Jesus speaks:
You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’ Matthew 15:7-9 (NIV)
To authentically worship Jesus we have to allow Him into our heart. We have to place Him at the epicenter of our life – physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Regardless of how we feel, we choose to place Him at the center on the throne. This is a discipline we learn again and again. But because God is so good, when we choose to spend time with Him, to gaze upon his glory, and to place Him at the center of our life, a great exchange takes place. He exchanges our weakness for strength, our mourning for joy, our fear for freedom, our worry for peace, our failures for victory, our hate for love, our chaos for clarity, our doubt for faith, our pain for perseverance, and our hearts for his. We don’t have to do anything to try to force our hearts to worship. God created our hearts and He longs for us to give them back to Him messy and broken so that He can begin to heal us and free us to worship Him. All we need to do is show up – keep coming back to Him, keep offering your heart, keep allowing Him to take what’s broken and make it whole. This is where worship begins.
ACTION
- Find a space to worship over these next 7 days – I’m going to call it your “sanctuary.” It doesn’t need to be fancy, it just needs to be a space where you can be quiet and free from distractions. Maybe it’s your favorite chair, your balcony, your shower, your yoga mat, your car…anywhere you can go to be alone for 15 minutes without interruption where you feel free to be yourself.
- Set an atmosphere of peace in your space. Anything that makes your heart feel at home, open, and peaceful. Maybe you light a candle, turn on some worship music, or open a window…whatever it is for you to feel safe and free.
- Read these scriptures and speak them out as your prayer
- “Create in me a pure heart, Oh God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” Psalm 51:19
- “Search me, God, and know my heart; Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me; and lead me in the everlasting way.” Psalm 139:23-24 NIV
- Pray & Meditate – ask the Lord to reveal your heart to you. What is holding you back from offering your whole heart to Him in worship? What have you placed above Him on the throne of your heart? Wait for Him. It might come in a thought, a picture, a lyric from a song, or an emotion. Maybe it’s a memory of a time you felt hurt that has hardened your heart, maybe it’s a lie you believed about God that has kept you distant, maybe it’s a fear you have that is holding you back, maybe it’s sin, maybe it’s your own doubt…or maybe today your heart is glowing with his love, with his joy, with his grace. Whatever it is today – sit with it and feel it all in your heart allowing your emotions to be free. Once you know what it is that God has revealed to you today – offer it to God, repent if you need to, and ask Him to make the exchange – to take your heart and make it more like His. Ask Him to heal your heart and to make it pure. Stay here as long as you want.
- Journal – for me this often happens in the middle of it all with tears running down my face, but whenever and however, write down what God has revealed to you today.