What does it mean to cultivate a heart of worship?

In a time of endless distractions we can easily forget that we are creatures wired for worship.

It is in our nature to worship. So, what would it mean to cultivate something we are already wired to do?

This phrase is most often used in the context of developing a heart that is sensitive toward worshiping God and no other.

To cultivate a heart sensitive to worshiping God we mean to develop a heart that is no longer distracted by false gods and petty human distractions and we become laser focused on the true God of the universe and intimate with Him by drawing near to Him. The ways in which we draw near to God are regularly outlined in this Blog and are foundational to the Christian life. They provide fuel to the fire of our worship of God.

Practical Steps of Worship

Among the many practical steps I am going to outline there is nothing more important than recognizing our need to minimize distraction in order to spend time with someone worthy of our time and attention.

Consider this. I wouldn’t take my wife on a date only to sit a cross from her at dinner mindless of her and on my phone. I’m not going to cultivate much of a relationship doing that. In fact, I’m not cultivating much at all.

Spending time with God means we turn of the distractions and focus our attention on Him. Many people find that removing themselves from the daily rhythms of life helps this tremendously. Go outside. Take out the earbuds. Ask God to meet with you. Begin to pray.

All of these intentional acts tell God you are ready to spend undivided time with Him.

So, when your not distracted. Take the time in prayer and meditation of God’s word. Study His word and ask Him to reveal himself to you.

Develop a heart of gratitude and thanksgiving in these moments. As the scriptures reveal. God provided payment for your sin by the blood of Jesus. Don’t let that pass you by. Reflect on the sheer grace and mercy of a loving God that would provide redemption for His very creation that rejected Him.

Commit to acting in your faith by obedience to the Lord.

In fact, Jesus expressed this act of devotion in John 14:23-24 saying,

‘Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me. ‘

John 14:23-24

This is really profound and certainly can impact our worship by acting in obedience.

Worship is a posture of love and devotion. It is not some mindless, emotional, meditative, trance believers find themselves in once a week.

Our worship is fueled by our knowledge of God the Father and then lived out by our obedience to Him.

Cultivating a heart of worship means that we spend time not just in prayer and meditative states listening to the wind, but that we are discovering Him by how He has revealed himself to us through his word and the words of Jesus.

We quite literally express our love and devotion to Jesus by keeping his words.

This will cultivate a heart of worship aimed at Him and no other. Keep him at the center of your worship and you will not go wrong.

A few years ago I found myself constantly asking God, “Why?” Things were just not panning out as I thought they would and I honestly thought I had been heading the way God wanted me to head. It was confusing and depressing.

I found myself disillusioned and angry too.

“God, why didn’t things go the way I thought they would?”

“God, I thought I was going the right way. Why didn’t it work out the way I thought?”

I’ll never forget my childhood pastor explaining to me that God would have me get on a bike in my life to get me to one point and then He’ll ask me to get off that bike and on to another one to go a different direction.

In my childhood mind, it made no sense, but now I get it.

The confusion of getting off one bike and on to another is for real.

The bike might be a career, or a goal, or vision for your life, for which you may have to get off completely in order to actually get where God wants you to be.

Mind blown.

But, that doesn’t mean we don’t go through ALL the emotions that come along with the disappointment of having to completely shift and change “bikes.”

Dealing with uncertainty is at the core of navigating life as a human and learning how to cope with all that accompanies uncertainty in a healthy way is at the center of growing and maturing as an adult but also as a believer.

I don’t think that God intends us harm when He moves us through life on one “vehicle” only to call us to shift to a different “vehicle” once we’ve reached a destination. His heart in these matters for our hearts is pure and kind and loving. His goal is to refine us like gold. To purify our hearts through life’s many twists and turns.

At the core of a Christian’s life are the truths about God’s involvement with our lives and world events as His presence and intimate involvement directly shapes our perspective and transformation.

It’s the lives of those we find in the scriptures that we can gain insight and wisdom with regards to our hope and our trust in God’s sovereign hand.

Joseph was betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery, and then later came to rule in Egypt as God’s steady hand moved him into position during famine and reunited him with his family once again. Joseph’s journey was certainly filled with emotion and instability, but God’s faithful hand provided that He was put into God’s purpose and plan at just the right moment. Despite it all. Joseph remained faithful and trusting in God’s work.

We struggle to trust God’s plan for a few reasons I believe.

1. We want to be the masters of our own destiny.
2. We naturally have a fear of the unknown.
3. We only have a limited perspective of our lives.

Now, at the risk of sounding trite, Christians often run to “solve the problem” by quoting scripture and telling each other to just have faith.

This can also have the opposite effect of comfort and bring more guilt and shame.

So, what do we do?

I think it helps to give ourselves permission to feel what is taking place first and to let compassion in for all the emotions that surround life’s twists and turns.

God sees it all. He can sit with you without judgment and let you process. He knows your needs. He fashioned you. He knows the weight you carry. In fact, he invites you to come to Him.

Matthew 11:28-30 says:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Maybe you are in a place where you don’t understand what God is doing. You are weary and burdened. He invites you to bring it to Him and to lay it at his feet.

He is trustworthy and good. He will not pile on. In fact He promises to give you in return a light yoke that is easy. He will provide for your spirit exactly what it needs to carry it. All is needed is to come and trust.

Maybe you need help processing these things. Maybe you need a safe and trustworthy mentor or coach to just sit with you and give you the space to talk it through.

I know time and time again that just hearing the words come out of my mouth began the healing I truly needed.

We are here to serve you if you are looking for a coach. Reach out to us by emailing [email protected] and we will see if working with us will be the right fit for you in this season of life.

Be blessed.

Doubt is hard. In my experience it’s often been accompanied by shame. When I have doubts… I feel shame for having them.

Maybe you’ve felt shame or shamed for having doubt?

Doubt is built into our human experience because of uncertainty. In some ways we know we can’t control everything we will encounter in life and so doubt inevitably creeps in.

We can’t avoid it.

So, What we can do is recognize it and develop paths we will choose to navigate through it.

In other words, when we encounter doubt we can already have in mind the sort of doubts we are prone to face and have a game plan in navigating them.

The bible can offer us hope and courage that we are not left alone in our doubt. It doesn’t shame us for doubting. In fact, we see in many places a comforting for doubts and encouragement through them.

I think it’s important to segment out the types of doubt we face. First, there is a doubt in knowledge. Intellectually we face a lacking in knowledge. Then there is doubt in our emotions. When faced with doubt we experience a myriad of emotions. Fear, anxiety, confusion. Then we experience doubt in God. Will He be faithful? Will He keep his promises? Will He show up?

So, in order to face all of these doubts and emotions we can seek out truth and exercise our spiritual disciplines that prepare us to face doubt and live confidently and resolute no matter the trial we face.

Steps to resolving our Doubts

First, resolving doubt starts with recognizing it, acknowledging it, and surrendering it.

Be Honest with yourself and with God. He’s not afraid nor angry that you have doubts. Tell Him your doubts. Ask Him for Help.

In Mark 9:24 we see the cry of a man seeking healing for His son from Jesus. In that moment the man cried out to Jesus to help Him with His unbelief because just prior to that Jesus said, “Everything is possible for one who believes.”

Wow! Seated in our moment of doubt is still this the opportunity to turn and believe just as this man did. What happened next? Jesus commanded the evil spirit in the boy to come out and it did.

Second, revisit the truth. Mulling over lies rather than the truth keeps most of us stuck. For some reason, most often than not, we think that wallowing in the muck of unbelief changes things. Grief can certainly live there and feeling grief has it’s own sort of progression, but we can determine and resolve to let the light of truth shine it’s bright light and bring us healing sooner than we might think.

Third, Take action and put your faith into practice. We flesh out our doubts by moving toward trust again. Ask God to fulfill prayers and seek his provision and peace when things do not pan out as you ask.

Which leads me to the fourth step.

Fourth, trust in the sovereignty of God. We often need to let our doubts resolve through washing our thoughts with truth first before we step into contemplating God’s sovereignty, but it takes a great deal of new found humility to see how God’s sovereign hand is how He is working for our good and His glory.

Trust that no matter the outcome of the uncertainty that seeded your doubts that God is truly going to work all things together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purposes. (Romans 8:28)

Then we can move into a spirit of Gratitude and Thanksgiving because we see how worthy He is of our worship and trust.

One thing is certain is that God has not shamed your doubt. He has anticipated it and provided for it in Jesus. Sometimes we need to process and hear these things aloud.

That is one big reason why I encourage others to seek biblical counseling and coaching. It has had such a profound impact on my life and it truly is among the many missing steps I desperately needed for my own personal healing journey.

Be blessed and may you be encourage to bring your doubts to the Lord and renewed in his truth and sovereign hand.