As I've been studying the life of David, I think the thing that has stood out to me the most was that he was a worshiper and a warrior. That would seem like a disconnect to most but when you begin to study his life you realize those two things were very much interwoven into the fabric of his personality and calling. Even during the times he wasn't playing his harp but rather fighting instead, he was still writing songs (psalms). His heart for worship defined his life even during the times of battle. As worshipers we, too, are fighting battles in worship. Battles are fought and won while worshiping God. That time spent with God (whether in a corporate or personal time) bears a lot of weight to Him and accomplishes so much. Through worship God can bring healing, peace, joy, breakthrough and answers. He calls us to worship Him so many times throughout His Word. When we are sad. We are to worship. When we are happy. We worship. When we are afraid. Worship. There are battles fought and won and in His presence. So, we are worshipers and warriors too.
God has always spoken to me through songs and I hope He always will. A couple of years ago I stepped away from leading worship not knowing if I would ever do it again. It felt like another sort of death. When I stepped down, quite honestly I was heartbroken for many many months over that decision I needed to make. Eventually I stopped crying about it and started asking God why I needed to lay that down. I took a year and pulled back from everyone to seek God, clear my head and focused on Him.
Throughout the last couple of years my prayer has been constantly that I would learn how to trust Him and worship Him when nobody saw me up front leading worship. I wanted to know how to worship Him even when I didn't have a microphone in front of me or even when singing wasn't public.
As I have been studying the life of David I began to see David's heart for worship written in the pages throughout each season of his life. There was a long time between when he was anointed & promised to be king and actually taking his seat as king and yet, through it all, he was worshiping and writing songs and had a heart after God in every season.
My sister sent me this song Clear the Stage a while back and it honestly seems as though this man wrote the last couple years of my life in a song. Go ahead & listen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6smGew7dGto
There is a line in the song that says "You can sing all you want to and still get it wrong because worship is more than a song. We must not worship something that is not even worth it. Clear the stage for the one that deserves it. Anything I put before my God is an idol. Anything I want more than God is an idol." That means anything.
The are times you need to take a step back and check that your heart is doing something for the right reasons. You can, at times, become so consumed by doing something really awesome that you lose sight of who you are doing it for. When the singing, music, performing, working, parenting, leading ministries (or whatever you are doing) takes the place of God you need to stop and evaluate some things. Albeit great things but if it takes the place of God than it is an idol. Doing things for God is not necessarily what worship is.
In the last couple of years God has spoken to me about what worship really is. Worship is not necessarily music. Worship is not always the song or the lights, or the people. It isn't your calling or the show or even the feeling. Worship is something you do with your life. It is giving everything you are to everything He is because He is worthy of all our worship. I still have an undeniable passion for worship and the music and I have started singing again but I know that the object of this passion is not the music but for God whether I am singing it or living it....worshiping God should be a lifestyle not a song set.
It is laying anything and everything down so He gets the glory in every area of life. It is a heart resting and trusting in His goodness and faithfulness. It is a heart pursuing Him and walking in your gifts and callings because He is good not because you are good.
Do you have something in your life that is your calling or passion & seems like this amazing thing but tends to consume you and has become your idol? Pray like David "Create in my a clean heart, oh God. Renew a right spirit within in me". David knew he was anointed to be king very early in life but his journey was long before he took that place. In all his ups and downs, failures and victories, David continued to live a life given to worship and sought the Lord for direction constantly. He was a man after God's own heart in everything he did and sang about in his life.
We are to worship God at all times and in all things with our lives not just our songs. Even if that means we do not have a microphone in front of us. I would actually argue that we can worship Him best when there are no microphones in front of us, no audience, no show. Just you, Him and your heart & life given to God in complete surrender and worship. That is a life of worship.
