This week’s guest post is from my sister Caitlin Dolive. Enjoy! If you want to write a post be sure to click here for more info!
I decided to put my thoughts down on paper and post them on my brother’s blog in hopes of helping others and in hopes of getting some feedback from clergy, pastoral and ministry friends and followers of evandolive.com. Let me first start with my personal views on worship.
I LOVE PRAISE and WORSHIP. It is my favorite part of most church services. I often get more from (as in hearing from the Lord, encouragement, and hope) just by hearing or singing hymns to give praise to God. Though I still connect to the word or message provided by the pastor, I often times feel myself connecting more in a moment in worship. I feel worship is intimate and can be powerful all in the same breath. But as Christians, I think we often check out or miss those moments that God is trying to stir in us a moment of worship. God wants us to Praise him and honor him. Why should we hold back or wait for the right time?
Growing up I was not raised in church that lifted their hands arms, danced or jumped around to give praise to God, but this is not something I am ashamed of, if anything I am grateful for the foundation that I had growing up in church. I am thankful that God has opened my eyes up to other ways to worship him. Throughout my worship experience both now and in the past, I have learned worship does not have to be anything more than you thanking God for his many blessings, sitting in the quiet listening for his sweet voice, or even lifting your voice with praise all with a grateful heart. The key is to worship with a grateful heart and to not got go through the motions. If you’re praising God with just words what justice does it serve?
Your worship should also be in your actions ( your life as a Christian.) . Billy Graham says it best “The highest form of worship of unselfish Christian service. The greatest form of praise is the sound of consecrated feet seeking out the lost and helpless.”
Psalm 95:6 -7 states “Come let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before our maker for he is our God.”(NLT) When you worship are really bringing yourself in to God’s presence? If the King of Kings came into your place of worship would he be pleased and honored with your worship or in some cases would he be welcome? As Christians we shouldn’t wait until Christ’s return or when we leave this world for eternity to Worship God and spend time in his presence.
Also, John 4: 21 – 24 states, “Believe me, dear women the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. You Samaritans know very little about the one you worship, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes through the Jews. But the time is coming – indeed it’s here now – when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. For God is Spirit , so those who worship him must worship him in truth.” ( NLT)
I can’t imagine what the worship is like or will be like when I get to Heaven. But if I can have glimpse of it here on Earth I want do whatever it takes to manifest his glory and honor until that time. God wants all of our worship, everything in us to praise and worship him. Let’s make a point to worship God by opening the floors of heaven with our worship, honoring the person who deserves all that we can truly give him.
I want my worship to be FOR REAL and I pray that you experience his presence in a way you never experienced it before. The video below is for the song Fire Fall Down by Hillsong United. I love this song and to me it represents what worship is all about.
I pray it blesses you.
May God Bless you and keep you always.
Caitlin Dolive
Rev. Dr. Evan M. Dolive 