Give to the Lord the glory He deserves! Bring your offering and come into His presence. Worship the Lord in all His holy splendor.
1Chronicles 16:29 NLT
Do you remember when you were very young and you thought the world revolved around you? Your parents were there to take care of you and people made a fuss over you because you were little and cute and, hey, why shouldn’t they? I vaguely remember the feeling of shock (I was pretty young!) when I first started to realize that I was just one piece in a big, big world and that a vast portion of that world could care less about me.
When an elderly neighbor who had been like a grandparent to me passed away, I remember that feeling—a feeling something akin to betrayal—that the world would have the audacity to keep turning even when our corner of it had been shattered. We pause for a time over the loss of a loved one, then we slowly pick up where we left off and go about our daily lives. We start finding our new normal in the wake of a loved one’s absence. The reality of losing someone you love makes you realize that the only person whose world stops turning when you die is yours and everyone and everything else will keep going without you. It has not stopped yet for one person who has died on this earth. Loved ones may take years to get over the loss; they may never truly move on. Others will move on at a rate that may alarm us. But. The world will continue to turn. It doesn’t revolve around us.
We learn this more the older we get. We get an inkling of what real life will be like when we graduate high school. Then again when we graduate from whatever higher education, if any, that we choose, and ultimately when we are officially thrust out into the real world it always comes as a bit of a shock. I don’t mean to imply that we are all terribly self-absorbed brats for all of our formative years, or that everyone immediately grows up when we are thrusted out, but as a whole we do become intimately acquainted with these facts of life in ways that perhaps weren’t fully realized before. Many of us in the church today tend to still carry some of this self-centeredness into our spiritual walk.
I have heard many people explain why they go to church, why others should go to church, what they look for in a church, and what is important to them in a church. They may say it is important to have a great children’s ministry, or an adult outreach program, or Bible study groups, or great music, or taking time to meditate and reflect on life. All of these are important, but they are still at their heart self-centered. What about the importance of worshiping and praising God? Of glorifying Him because He is the whole reason we even exist?
We are commanded to be in fellowship with other believers, to grow in Christ, but this isn’t all. One of the fundamental principles that we are told over and over again in God’s word is that we are to worship Him. In all seasons. We are to get ourselves to church, whether it be a physical building or a house church, where we can gather with other believers, and we are to sing. To praise. To testify. And to worship our King. In all seasons. No matter what. Even when our world has crumbled. Even when we don’t feel like it. No matter what, we are to worship Him.
It’s about Him. He loves us. He wants us to be happy but He knows we will only find true joy and peace in Him. In singing His praises, in the good times and bad. It is about focusing on Him and all His goodness, rather than focusing on ourselves. It’s not about us—it is all about Him.