As a praise and worship leader, I have heard many comments over the years about how I should worship, what kind of music is acceptable and appropriate for worship, and which style of music is the one God prefers. Comments which came from people who do not know who I am, why I worship the way I do, and have forgotten whom I worship.
My response to them is:
Sorry to disappoint, but I am not here to mold my worship according to your perspective of worship.
I am not here to format my style to fit your style
I am not here to ensure that how I sing, or what I sing, makes your checklist of what is appropriate or acceptable.
I am not here to focus my worship on you but on God.
You see…
I am here to worship God and God alone.
I am here to give Him all I am, holding nothing back.
I am here to declare His goodness and mercy.
I am here to express myself in any way which draws me closer to Him.
I am here to worship with my voice, my music, my actions, my words, my all.
I am here because of Him and not because of you.
This means that as long as I have breath, I will continue to sing with excitement. I will shout, clap, dance, move, raise my hands, bow down, jump and declare with all I am that God is worthy to be praised. God is the reason for my existence and it is only to Him that I give my worship.
You see, I believe in a God that gets excited when He sees me.
Who loves me just as I am.
Who rejoices over me with gladness.
Who loves to sing loudly over me (He is not afraid of loud noises).
Who is not offended by how I worship but delights in me.
Even though I have heard comments that discredit how I worship it has never crossed my mind to cease worshipping, to cease giving God all the glory, all the honor, and all the praise.
Because if I allow someone else to tell me how I should worship, and what kind of worship is acceptable, I am letting them dictate my response to God’s goodness and mercy.
I am giving them permission and power to assume God’s role in my life.
I am permitting them to define worship for me based on their experience, their perspective, their beliefs, their cultural limitations, their view of God, and their understanding of His greatness.
So I am committed to worshipping God every single day whichever way draws me closer to Him, and it may not necessarily look like your way of worshipping, but you know what, thats fine because I’m worshipping Him and if God has a problem, He will let me know.
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“The Lord your God is with you, a Powerful One Who wins the battle. He will have much joy over you. With His love He will give you new life. He will have joy over you with loud singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17)
