What defines worship?

When we worship, what is it that makes the experience?

When I was attending church yesterday, I had a significantly different worship experience than I have had at church before. All week long I had been looking forward to going to church for worship. It had driven my week. The want/need for my normality was brewing in my soul.

I wanted the praise. I wanted the fellowship. I wanted the deeply emotional prayers. I wanted the deeply moving sermon.

I received praise, but it was different from what I was wanting. The praise team was not what I was expecting.

I received fellowship, but it was different from what I was wanting. I was there with Justin, who is a good friend, but the friends I usually go to church with that were there happened to come for first service and were leaving.

I wanted the deeply emotional prayers, but they were different from what I was wanting. The feeling was not coming through to me. The emotion was not there.

I wanted the deeply moving sermon, but it was very different from my expectations. It was a good sermon.

It was interesting, because I still left church blessed. It reminds me of my childhood where I grew up in a church with a totally different worship style. I remember being bored in church many weeks. Occasionally I would come across a sermon that would speak to me, but many times I didn't.

Now I attend a church that I usually get a blessing every week, but this week was very different.
The videos for church this week went right along with my experience. There was one that really touched on one thing that is sticking with me.



Worship is not any of the things that I listed above.

I've never really though too much into how worship is such a personal thing. We all worship differently. I'm lucky in many ways to have found a church that has a very similar worship style to me.

It's amazing to me how different each of us has been made. None of us are totally a like. We all have parts of us that do not fit into any worship service.

I remember one time when my parents came to visit my church. It was a big weekend for us, I believe that it was the "Grand Opening" service of our new location. It was a very grand service. My Dad stated that it is not his type of service, but he though that if he was my age he'd probably find it more relevant to him.

I believe that such diversity is in God's plan. It is mean to bring us back to the personal. We as humans are always trying to find people that have similar belief structures, and yet there will always be differences to bring us back to relying on making our walk personal.



Lord,

Thank you for once again opening my eyes to worship. I pray that you continue to lead in my life. Please be with my family and friends in a special way this week. A lot of us are going though change in many aspects of our lives. I pray that you lead us to what you would want for our lives. I love you and praise you for bringing such strong and supportive people into my life.

I love you,

Brie!