What Does Your Worship Lead To?
What are the results of your participation in worship? We all agree that worship ultimately is for God. We praise Him and exalt Him for who He is. He is the audience of One in the worship experience and we are the performers bringing to Him our adoration and thanksgiving. Yes, worship is for God.
And yet, worship should also impact our life. Certainly, there should be a deepening of our spiritual connection with our Lord. Perhaps there is emotional healing that takes place or mental strength that is renewed. What about the impact on our behavior and thought patterns during the coming week following worship? Does our worship lead to godly sorrow for sin in our life and a forsaking of things that displease our Heavenly Father?
According to 2 Chronicles 29:1, Hezekiah came to the throne of the kingdom of Judah at the age of 25. The chronicler gives this testimony about him – “He did what was pleasing in the Lord’s sight, just as his ancestor David had done.” (2 Chron. 29:2, NLT). One of the first things that he did as king was to reinstitute worship of God in the Temple. The Temple had been closed by Hezekiah’s father, Ahaz, as he pursued the worship of pagan gods. Hezekiah rejected the ways of his father and pursued the True God. He immediately saw the importance of worship.
Orders were given to cleanse and repair the Temple that had fallen into disarray. The command went forth for the people of Judah to come to the Temple to celebrate the Passover. The celebration lasted longer than the prescribed time because the people were so intent on returning and honoring the God of their ancestors. The entire city of Jerusalem was filled with joy and the chronicler stated that the city of Jerusalem “had not seen a celebration like this one since the days of Solomon, King David’s son (2 Chron. 30:26).” This would be a period of about 200 years during which worship had declined and became non-existent.
What happens next in this story is significant. In 2 Chronicles 31, we learn that right worship leads to right action toward sin. Verse one tells us, “When the festival ended, the Israelites who attended went to all the towns of Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim and Manasseh, and they smashed all the sacred pillars, cut down the Asherah poles and removed the pagan shrines and altars.” In other words, they made every effort possible to rid the country of anything that might lead them back into sin.
So, what is the result in your own life of participation in worship? Worship of God is our highest calling. It’s all for God. But it also ought to impact our life in the days following the worship experience. Think about that they next time you are leaving your place of worship. What pagan shrines in your life do you need to remove as a result of worship?
One response to “What Does Your Worship Lead To?”
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I feel that all the weight of the world is off my shoulders, and I feel peace in my life and overwhelming joy. More specifically all my ailments seem to go away and I can physically move better and more freely.
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Clearing-the-Fog 
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