Love and Worship

In my pride I had lost sight of what really matters. I had overlooked what couldn't be clearer in Scripture. Jesus said the greatest commandment is this:“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37, emphasis added). While it's simplistic to say that worship is love, it's a fact that what we love most will determine what we genuinely worship.

God wants us to love him more than our instruments and music. More than our possessions, food, and ministry. More than our wife and children.

More than our own lives.

That doesn't mean we can't love anything else. Or that we shouldn't love anything else. But we can't love anything in the right way unless we love God more. Our desires will be out of whack. We'll look to temporary pleasures like concerts, video games, and sports to fulfill eternal desires. We'll love things that aren't as worthy as God to be loved.

How do I know what I love the most? By looking at my life outside of Sunday morning. What do I enjoy the most? What do I spend the most time doing? Where does my mind drift to when I don't have anything to do? Whatam I passionate about? What do I spend my money on? What makes meangry when I don't get it? What do I feel depressed without? What do I fear losing the most?

Our answers to those questions will lead us straight to the God or gods welove and worship.

That's why as worship leaders our primary concern can't be song preparation, creative arrangements, or the latest cool gear. Our primary concern has to be the state of our hearts.

The great hymn-writer Isaac Watts once wrote:

The Great God values not the service of men, if the heart be not in it: The Lord sees and judges the heart; he has no regard to outward forms of worship, if there be no inward adoration, if no devout affection be employed therein. It is therefore a matter of infinite importance, to have the whole heart engaged steadfastly for God.

A matter of infinite importance.

Is it a matter of infinite importance to you?

Unquestionably it is to God. And when it becomes a matter of infinite importance to us, we're beginning to grasp the heart of leading worship.