The Power of Worship

‘Worship’ is a term which is used widely in both the church and in Christian circles. On Sundays we gather to worship together in our congregations; throughout the week, we may listen to numerous worship bands and their latest worship albums, raving to our friends about the latest Hillsong record. In our schedules we may find worship conferences, worship nights and ‘Worship Wednesdays’ in the Mary Harris Chapel on the University Campus. Our lives are saturated with ‘worship’, and rightly so. But, aside from our Sunday church services, our Spotify playlists and our resounding renditions of ‘This is Amazing Grace’ in the shower, is there something more to it? Is the act of worship simply praising God for who he is and what he has done, or does such an act hold more power and authority than we think?

One fundamental principle of worship is to glorify God, whether that be through our singing, our praying, our thinking, our working and our socialising. The call to live out a ‘lifestyle of worship’ is a well-known phrase, yet it is one we should look to incorporate into our daily lives. Graham Kendrick stresses that ‘it is vital that we understand that [worship] is rooted in a conscious act of the will, to serve and obey the Lord Jesus Christ.’ From morning to evening our desire should be for our words, actions and thoughts to point towards our Heavenly Father and reflect Jesus. 1 Chronicles 16:23-25 instructs us to live such a lifestyle:

‘Sing to the Lord, all the earth; proclaim his salvation day after day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples. For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods.’ 1 Chronicles 16:23-25

The passage above instructs us to sing, to proclaim and to declare, all three of which are visible and loud. In fact, we are to be so conspicuous in our daily worship of God that ‘the nations’ and ‘all peoples’ should be able to hear us rejoicing in our salvation and his glory. Worship is an outward expression of our heart for Jesus - for his infinite love for us, displayed so rawly on the cross and so victoriously in his resurrection. Such love urges us to respond, and we do so through worship.

Another reason why we engage in worship is to encounter God. The first half of James 4:8 states that drawing near to God is a mutual action between us and him:

‘Come near to God and he will come near to you…’ James 4:8

Meeting with Jesus through worship is what our beings were created to do. God knitted us together in such a way that our innate desire is to be in his presence. Through encountering our Heavenly Father, we surrender ourselves to him and his purposes for us; consequently we are re-energised, re-focused and we fall deeper in love with him. Worshipping God both aligns our hearts with his desires and facilitates the fusing of Heaven and Earth, and this reality prepares us for something extremely exciting: utilising God’s power.

Because worship is such a powerful demonstration of love and surrender, it allows us to access the throne room and presence of the King of Kings freely. We are able to come to God with boldness and implore what’s on his heart. We get to hang out with him, which is a phenomenal truth! Hebrews 4:16 says:

‘Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.’

Through encountering God in worship, we are equipped with a fresh outpouring of his mercy and grace, and our hearts become more like his. We all know that the longer we spend around a certain person, the more we begin to speak and act like them; the same goes for our time with God. Jack Hayford writes that ‘worship changes the worshiper into the image of the One worshiped’. Thus, worshipping Jesus allows us to become more like him. In addition, when we meet with Jesus face-to-face in worship, our faith in him increases as we see just how beautiful he is and how wonderfully he is working in us. So, as our hearts reflect Jesus more clearly and our faith is strengthened, this promise becomes our reality:

‘Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.’ John 14:12

Through worship, we have God’s authority to transform our communities, our society and our world. As we become more Christ-like through surrendering our lives, ambitions and desires to him, our hearts are cultivated to bloom with compassion, with mercy and with power to change people’s circumstances and their lives.

To encourage us in the fight for social justice here in Exeter, I want to finish with an example found in the Old Testament of how worship allowed God to act and completely transform a helpless situation. 2 Chronicles 20 records how King Jehoshaphat and his people, when faced with a vast enemy army approaching rapidly towards them, worshipped the Lord in prayer and in reverent pleading:

‘Jehoshaphat bowed with his face to the ground, and all the people of Judah and Jerusalem fell down in worship before the Lord.’ 2 Chronicles 20:18

Then in Verse 21 and 22: ‘...Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendour of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying: ‘Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever.’ As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated.’

May we worship the Lord our God with all our hearts in the face of injustice, so we may see his power transform lives.