Genuine Worship

This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;

                in vain do they worship me. (Mark 7:6-7 ESV)

Psalm 150 has become a foundational psalm for most praise & worship ministries primarily because of its final verse: “Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Praise the LORD!” (Psalm 150:6). But why should everything that breathes praise the Lord? I believe the answer can be found in Psalms 22 where it declares that God inhabits the praises of His people. You see, where God is there His glory is also, there His healing is also, and there His blessing is also. When God steps off His holy throne and dwells in our praise, He doesn’t leave His glory behind; NO, He brings it with Him. When we praise and worship Him, we enter into all His glory.

Many believers today, unfortunately, have joined the ranks of the Pharisee’s to whom Christ was speaking about in our key verse above. We have a church that knows how to shout with our throat but not with our spirit; a church that knows how to groan with our cries but not with our bellies; a church that knows how to sing with our voices but not with our hearts. Jesus affirmed that “true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth” (John 4:23). Worship is not genuine when all it is, is singing songs and following a praise leader. Genuine worship flows from the heart. Christ promised that when we believe and worship Him with all our hearts, then out of them will flow rivers of living water (see John 7). Let us ‘bring down the glory’ with our heart-felt praise and be braced for the rushing water of the Spirit today!