How Should We Worship? Part 3 of 4

Posted on November 28th, 2011 by adamdiehl

This post is the first in a series of blog posts about how we should worship. Previous posts can be found here and here.

4) We Worship God With Our Emotions

I wrote about this point a lot at my personal blog, www.adamdiehl.com on this post.

This point can be explained simply with some scriptures. As you read this, I challenge you to imagine these worshipful commands without emotion.

Romans 12:11-12 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

Psalm 47:1
Clap your hands, all you nations;
shout to God with cries of joy.

Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!

Habakkuk 2:20
The LORD is in his holy temple;
let all the earth be silent before him.

Now remember, we do not worship God because of emotion – but we do worship God with emotion.

5) We Worship With Our Body

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says, Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; ²⁰ you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

‘Nuf said there.

How Should We Worship? Part 2 of 4

Posted on November 14th, 2011 by adamdiehl

This post is the first in a series of blog posts about how we should worship. The first can be found here.

2) We should Worship With our Spirit, and . . .

3) We should Worship With our Mind (Understanding)

1 Corinthians 14:15 says, So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my understanding; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding.

This distinction between worshiping with Spirit and Mind is, contextually, speaking about tongues. When we worship with our mind, its “God I praise you because . . .” and then we declare why God is awesome. When we worship with our spirit, it is not an intellectual operation, it’s something . . . deeper. Yes, this absolutely means worshiping by speaking in tongues. But at the same time I think it also is a “heart cry” out to God.

My church does the song, “From the Inside Out” from Hillsong. The chorus ends with the lyrics, “From the inside out Lord my soul cries out” and then is immediately followed by several measures of a musical interlude. That musical interlude is not a chance for the congregation to notice how wonderful we all sound (although, we do sound pretty good if I can that…wink wink nudge nudge). The musical break exists for a chance for our heart to cry out to God – however that may look. So we sing with our understanding, “From the inside out, Lord my soul cries out” and then we have a musical break to leave space for our soul to cry out to God.