Worship is for God!

I believe that this is the single most important concept in grasping what worship is all about.

Ultimately, it’s not about posture, lyrics, music or style. It’s not about performance, inclusion, entertainment or presentation. Worship – to be truly understood as well as practiced – is solely for God. God is the starting and ending point of worship. He is the initiator. He is the conductor and he is the audience. He is the one focus.

We don’t even enter into the picture except as instruments to be used in his hands to elevate his praise. Worship of God does not exist for our pleasure but for his pleasure. God desired to bring everything together, in heaven and on earth, under Jesus so that we who put our faith and hope in him would lift our praise to our glorious God (Ephesians 1:10-12). It’s all about him! It’s not about us.

We love him because he first loved us (1 John 4:19). We did not choose him. He chose us in Christ Jesus to be holy – to be set apart (Ephesians 1:4). We were created in his image for the praise of his glory (Isaiah 43:5-7).

It’s not about us. It’s all about him!

Paul Oakley, worship leader and song writer from England, wrote a song entitled It’s All About You (Jesus, Lover of My Soul) which contains the chorus:
It’s all about you, Jesus
And all this is for you
For your glory and your fame
It’s not about me
As if you should do things my way
You alone are God and I surrender to your ways.
1997 Kingsway’s Thankyou Music (Paul Oakley)

Worship is truly all about him – the lover of our souls. We worship him in order that he would receive glory. We worship him by bragging about his fame – by boasting about his workmanship in us and in creation. We praise him because of his greatness and power – his kindness, mercy and love.

We have no means by which to honour and glorify him except that which he gives us – our voice, our gifts and talents, our rising and retiring, our coming and going, our every breath, our lives.

This sets our focus back on the one who created us to worship him. Worship is all about him. It is not about us.