Our church is studying Revelation and I’m so struck by how this final book applies to our lives in the here and now about the then and there, Heaven. I don’t know what I ever thought, or if I even thought on the Book of Revelation, but I can tell you it’s not what I thought, if I did think on it. The Book of Revelation is about the future, but has great lessons for our present.
With so much talk these days about worship, praise, praise and worship, I’ve been examining my own worship. You know, What do I worship? Family, money, time, work, possessions, God? When do I worship? Only on Sunday, only when good things are happening, only when I need something from God and I’m trying to manipulate Him? (Who would do that?) Where do I worship? Only in a church, in His creation, in a hospital? And How do I worship? With hands lifted high, begrudgingly, with all emotion and reverence, with no emotion nor reverence?
If our worship here is practice for our worship there, it’s certainly worth a think on, right? Worship is not something anyone else can do for you and worship is not about performance. Worship is about opening our clenched hands that hold everything we desperately can’t let go of and pealing back our fingers, one by one, to surrender all that we are to all that He is. Worship is giving up of ourselves and giving into God. That’s why worship can be difficult for some folks — worship is surrender, it’s about getting over ourselves and giving way to Him.
We are imperfect people living in an imperfect world, but that’s no excuse to remain that way. We’re taught repeatedly in the New Testament that we are to grow in our faith, stop acting like babies, don’t drink just milk but move on to some meat. Giving in is growing up. Maturity increases our worship. Chew on that for a minute. Maturity in Christ increases our worship. It just makes sense. As we grow and mature in Christ, should not our worship also grow and mature? As we see Him more and more for who He really is, our hearts should be stirred to worship Him more and more.
When speaking about worship in heaven, Dr. David Jeremiah uses the musical term crescendo. He says you can “feel the movement of worship through the book of Revelation building until there is a massive crescendo of worship to the Lord.” Crescendo means gradually increasing in loudness and intensity. It means building, climbing, growing, escalating. It means getting louder, giving more, steadily increasing in force and volume.
Shouldn’t our worship be getting louder and louder, stronger and stronger, more intense and more intense. Shouldn’t it be building and increasing as we walk through life as we grow and mature in Christ?
The only way for our worship to become more and more is for us to become less and less. Get over ourselves, give over to God. Not easy, but necessary.
If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? Matthew 17:24-25