Worship part 1 elevate Jan 16

Elevate will be focusing on worship or the next few weeks.

The concept of worship unfortunately has been shrunk by many people. When someone thinks of worship in general they tend to think of it as the "music time" in Church.
But
the concept of worship draws from its definition the act of submission. Worship is the submission to a higher presence. A presence that is believed to be greater than yourself. A presence that you place in a higher priority than yourself.
We believe that presence is our God.

In the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve spent their entire waking and sleeping moments in worship to God. They were able to do this because they recognized 24 hours a day in their conscious and unconscious thoughts that God was greater than they were and they needed him to supply all that they were. They understood their activities and lives flowed from the relationship that they had with God. This understanding put them in an attitude of worship regardless of their activity.

This perfect environment was interrupted when Adam and Eve chose to disobey God. In that disobedience they use their personal reason i/e self to decide what they should do rather than submit to God. They placed themselves and their reason above God and decided more knowledge was available through the tree.
Just like in the garden many of us use our reason to determine what the best course of worship is for us. We use our reason to determine where and when a worship experience can take place. And we decide what the voice of God can say and through what means He can say it.
Jesus came to redeem his creation, one of the aspects of that redemption plan was to restore us/give us the opportunity to once again live in worship to him.To live in a place that allows Him to hold control over us. Worship puts us in a place( that is His Throne Room)where we can hear His voice and follow His promptings.

In the story of Cain and Abel we see again the opportunity to evaluate worship. The brothers came to bring offering of worship to God.this is something they had done many times before.
And yet this time Cain had a different attitude. His heart had some form of selfishness or arrogance, something that was unacceptable in the act of worship. This resulted with God not accepting his offering.
Cains countenance shifted, and God went to Cain to restore proper relationship. Cain evidently was not interested, and ultimately killed his brother/competition in some twisted way of proving his point or to selfishly try to stay in control of his circumstances.
whatever the ultimate list of twisted reasoning might be, I believe one of the lessons in the story is ,the act of worship interrupted the flow of relationship between him and God. And without a proper relationship between him and God, ultimately all human relationships between Cain and others became destroyed, or in some way significantly altered to the negative.

Worship holds an amazing importance to our ability to stay in rhythm with God's heart. To worship only in song, at certain times of the day or week is giving into the same sort of self reasoning that destroyed relationships in the garden and outside the Garden of Eden.

Seeking a better relationship with God is another thread of worship that can help us maintain a constant connection to our Creator. To seek a relationship implies that we are seeking to discover, request and desire to know something more or someone better.Seeking God we are acknowledging the importance and greatness of His relationship with us. That acknowledgment is an act of submission and it keeps us in an attitude of worship.

Worship songs often allow us to declare, announce, and pray for what should be going on in our lives. Worship songs often allow us to acknowledge, and recognize the greatness of the God that we submit to. Worship songs give us music that allows us to ride, and ascend into the throne of God a little easier than doing it on our own.
But worship songs are not, nor should they be the only way that we worship.