Have you ever stood in a worship service, but didn’t really feel like you were worshiping with your heart?
You might have had your hands raised and your lips were moving, but nothing was stirring in your heart?
Chris Atkins says that one of the keys to having a heart of worship is understanding who empowers us to worship.
“When I lead worship, I have to come before the Lord and say,
‘God, I am not able to do this myself, I need you to fill me and make me a worshipper. Do your work in the me, continue to do that good work that you’ve begun in me.'”
“It’s a lifelong process, but so often we try to manipulate God, and when we do that, when we think of worship as trying to get God to do things our way, we’re really worshipping ourselves, it’s really false idol worship.”
We often fall into the trap of trying to get God to see things our way instead of seeking to see things from his perfect perspective.
“Don’t get me wrong, God encourages us to bring the prayers, bring the requests, and the passions, and the grieving of our hearts to Him because He loves to hear that. We need to come and allow God to let His will into us, to let His Kingdom come in us.”
What does that look like?
“For me that means walking away from some of the things that we have held onto in the past. Some of the religious trappings that we’ve done. Before we look at other people. We need to humbly come before God and ask him to cleanse us and fill us with his presence, make us worshippers who are authentic. What I live for in ministry is when I see people at the close of the service or in the service all of the sudden, you know there surrendering something to God, they’re literally presenting to God the bondage they’ve been in.”
Chris Atkins is a worship leader, pastor, ministry consultant, and songwriter with a passion for helping individuals experience God’s indwelling presence. He is the author of The Isaiah Encounter: Living an Everyday Life of Worship
Featured Songs: Jesus Loves Me – Chris Tomlin; Jesus – Chris Tomlin; Thy Will – Hillary Scott
The Isaiah Encounter
