How should we approach God?  I have to admit, that has become a bit of an obsession for me lately.  It started a few weeks ago.  At the time I was reading Francis Chan’s Forgotten God and I decided to take a detour to the back of the book where the first chapter of his former work Crazy Love is located.  In Crazy Love, chapter one Francis (of course we’re on a first name basis) suggests that rather than rush haphazardly into the presence of an awesome God (he was talking about prayer but my mind goes to worship as well), we ought to stop for a moment and think about what we are doing.  More importantly, we ought to consider Whom we are dealing with.

Amplifying this challenge in my mind is my reading of the account of Aaron’s sons approaching God in an unauthorized way from Leviticus 10…

¹ Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, contrary to his command. ² So fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD. ³ Moses then said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD spoke of when he said: “‘Among those who approach me
I will be proved holy;
in the sight of all the people
I will be honored.’”

Aaron remained silent.

And also in chapter 16…

¹ The LORD spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron who died when they approached the LORD. ² The LORD said to Moses: “Tell your brother Aaron that he is not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain in front of the atonement cover on the ark, or else he will die. For I will appear in the cloud over the atonement cover.

The question is simple.  How do we approach God?  Specifically, Is our worship detestable to God because we are rushing unprepared and over-filled into the sanctuary?  Does our worship incur God’s anger upon us?

I don’t mean to be judgmental and I am not necessarily trying to change minds about the methods in which we worship God (Unless, of course, they are outdated and ineffective).  I am asking if we truly have grasped the following principle in our worship:

PRINCIPLE:  God is awesome, holy, wholly other, sacred, eternal, majestic and mighty.  I am not.  I am sinful.  Therefore, in order to enter His presence I must be consecrated.  I have to prepare and be prepared by my Savior.

Jesus commands us to love the Lord with all of our HEART, SOUL, MIND and STRENGTH.  Why should our worship reflect and less?  What does that look like though?  Well, the SOUL thing is already taken care of.  Jesus offered Himself as a perfect sacrifice 2000+ years ago so now we can have a CHANCE at standing before God (as long as we believe and, through faith, accept Him as our Lord and Savior.

Many of us (I’m hesitant to say all or even most) have the STRENGTH thing down as well.  I mean, how hard is it to show up?  “You give me a location and a time and I’ll be there as long as it fits into my busy schedule.  Otherwise, don’t even bother to ask.

What about the HEART and MIND of worship though?  In my experience these are the two most difficult areas to prepare for and give to God.  This is probably due to the fact that these are the two areas of our lives that are easiest us to fill up on our own and you can’t fill up a cup that is already overflowing (Thanks for the insight James Cameron).

We fill our HEARTs with things from this world that are not from God.  We love and long for money, fame, sex, possessions, position.  We want what we want and not what God wants for us.  We hope that with enough self-righteousness and religious piety that someone will notice and tickle our ears with their accolades.  These desires fill our HEART and we simply run out of room in our overstuffed tickers to fit anything from God in there.

Concerning our MINDs, we are so full of our own expectations and “wisdom” that we have gained over the years as to exactly how God should be worshiped.  We have it all figured out-the right order, the right instruments, the right songs, the right key, the right tempo and even the right time of the right day of the week.  Those of us who haven’t figure these things out yet (don’t worry, soon the calouses will form) are full with other things.  We are full of distractions like that busy schedule I mentioned earlier.  If not distraction, then worry.  We are simply too worried about life, finances, work, friends, family, health, missing our favorite T.V. show (maybe that should go with the HEART list), politics, the polar ice caps melting and everything else under the sun to Worship the one true God.

Here is the bottom line.

If we want our worship to be worship “in the Spirit and in truth” we should empty our HEARTS and MINDS of everything of this world.  Is that easy? No.  Is it possible?  Yes.  Is it necessary?  Absolutely!

This Sunday, before you enter your place of worship, empty yourself of the love of this world and the worries of life.  Focus your HEART and MIND on Christ, “the author and perfecter of our faith.“  Do whatever it takes to enter the place of worship in awe of the Most High God.  This is the prerequisite for, not just the result of an awesome time of worship in the presence of God.  If you are unable to do that, might I suggest that your forgo the singing?  Your church’s ministry staff may not like me for that and the response some may be “No problem there, I don’t sing anyway.”  Instead of singing, you may want to pause and consider how you can be in awe of God.

In Psalms there is a word that appears repeatedly.  Selah.  It is considered untranslatable by some really smart people.  The thought is that there is a whole concept within the word that isn’t captured in any one English word.  There are also a few thoughts as to what selah might mean.  One thought is that it is tells the worshiper to stop and reflect on what has been said, is being said or will be said in the Psalm.  In other words, get your HEART and MIND ready.  Here comes something huge!  How awesome would your worship be this week if you added a few selahs to it?