Worship: How it Changes Lives

Have you ever felt as if your life is full of spaces, like a sentence missing words…?

I think this typically can describe our feelings during circumstances of loss. Or times when we look back and wonder at all the what ifs, roads not taken, and all the times we perceive we have missed, for whatever reasons. But as I have thought more about it, the times I am really talking about are the times when we lose sight of what worshiping our Lord really is about. The biggest loss of our lives is during the times we are not fully involved with the life of God in us. The times when we focus more on our circumstances than on God.

In Matthew 6:25 we are told, “…do not worry about your life…” In Matthew 13:22 we are told, “The cares of this world will choke out the life of God in us.” And if you think about it, we are all bombarded every minute of the day by the cares of this world. So, how do we not worry? How do we not focus on the spaces, on the times we think we have missed out on, on the regrets, on the worries going forward, how do we not worry about our life? The answer is found in the way we worship.

We are blessed to have a God who is with us in His word. As we avail ourselves to our Lord’ s word He reaches to us, pursues us, comforts, corrects, and teaches us. As we look at His word in Psalm 89 and John 11, God teaches us about worship and how we can go forward and not worry about our lives.

Let’s read the word of our Lord in Psalm 89:15-17. “Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you, who walk in the light of your presence, Lord. They rejoice in your name all day long; they celebrate your righteousness. For you are their glory and strength, and by your favor you exalt our horn.”  Let us look specifically at what it means to acclaim God, walk in His presence and have our horn exalted.

When we acclaim God, we praise God in our lives and exalt Him with great joy and devotion. In doing this despite the cares of the world we stay connected to God. We do this when we focus on God more than our circumstances. Psalm 89 goes on to tell us that our acclaim of God, and our focus on Him above all else enables us to experience the light of His countenance. Experiencing His countenance is God’s favor, blessing and presence with us. Verse 17 tells us; God is our glory and strength and by God’s favor our horn is exalted. When our horn is exalted, it means we are given strength, and power and are lifted up. When our worship of our Lord is our primary focus, we are lifted up above our circumstance and the cares of this world, as God’s strength and guiding presence are alive within us. As we acclaim God, acknowledging all He is and all He has done, is doing and will do, we are worshiping Him, we are connected to Him, and our God can and will work within us giving us strength and power and lifting us up, above our circumstance. God’s grace is more than His forgiveness of our sins, God’s grace is empowerment. It is God lifting us in His strength. It is our God enabling us to not worry about our lives.

As we continued to study and read about Martha and Mary in John 11, there comes additional insight into how we may be worshipping God. John 11: 17-32 is talking about the time of Lazarus’ death. As we put the context of the times in perspective, we can glean insight into the differences in the way Martha and Mary may worship in this instance.

In the times of Jesus, the Jewish custom was that when mourning the death of a loved one, women would not leave the house. Family and friends would come to those mourning. As we remember the story of Lazarus’ death, we know that Jesus was only about two miles away when He got word that Lazarus was dying. We know that Jesus delayed in coming to him and to this family that he cared deeply for, and during this delay Lazarus had died. John tells us that after the death of Lazarus, Martha heard that Jesus was coming, and she went out to meet him. Martha broke with custom, left the home, and went out to meet Jesus. When she saw Him, she said, “Lord if you had been here my brother would not have died.” Now Mary did not leave the house and continued to mourn. It was Jesus who called for Mary to come to Him, and she came immediately. When Mary saw Jesus, she fell at His feet and said the very same words that Martha had said, “Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

Now the text does not tell us the feelings of Martha or Mary. They both said the same words, but we see the circumstance in which they said them was different. We know God’s word is alive and active and I believe the spaces not filled in scripture are as well. Maybe they are there so we can see ourselves in them and let God’s word speak directly into our hearts.

Both sisters worshiped Jesus, both sisters said the same words when they saw Jesus and yet the context was so different. I can totally relate to Martha, charging out to meet Jesus and saying in her grief, “if you had been here…” Almost challenging Him, with a mixture of grief and anger. Maybe some of us have the same feelings when we are facing times of trial and grief, and calling out to God, “where are you, why didn’t you come, why didn’t you stop this?”

And then there was Mary, she too worshiped Jesus, she knew He did not come in time, she knew He could have stopped Lazarus from dying. And when Mary did come to Jesus, she fell at His feet and said in her grief, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” I do not hear this as challenging Jesus, or an expressing of anger that Jesus did not do as she wanted, but as lamenting at His feet, and sharing her grief that things had not been different, and that her brother had died, and Jesus if only you were here… The way Mary dealt with her loss was different than Martha. Her worship included obedience and submission of her will to His. It included trust and coming to Him as her place of refuge to share her tears. Mary worshiped Jesus in her grief, she waited, trusted in Him despite her pain, and knew He could and would come. And Jesus did come and when He did, He called Mary to Him, as He calls each of us to Him.

As we face our helplessness, trial, loss, and pain, how do we come to Jesus, how do we worship Him? Is He our place of refuge, and our answer to our deep need? Do we challenge Him, and question that He has not met our needs as we think He should? Or do we sit with Him, acclaim Him and worship Him, trusting He is our all, trusting He is the God who comes to us, calls to us and cares for us to the very depths of His tears.

“When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. ‘Where have you laid him?’ He asked. ‘Come and see, Lord,’ they replied. And Jesus wept.” (John 11:33-35)