Has the Lord opted out of your worship?

“The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men”. Isaiah 29:13.

In recent years, Gospel music has expanded to include most of the secular styles. With this opening out, gospel has achieved wider appeal to most sections of the community and reduced the stigma attached to Christian music in secular cycles. The commercial value of Christian music has also gone up with a downside being the attraction to this industry many musicians who appear not to expound real Christian values.  Most of their lyrics do not dwell on themes which are considered “too religiously explicit”.  They avoid being preachy and dwell on light themes such as prosperity. Even though these musicians claim to have received salvation, reported stories of their escapades reveal no actual change of heart.

As such music moves to church, it is important for us to consider carefully the words we sing to the Lord. Even though the adoption of different styles enables the church to reach out to wider sections of the community and especially to the youth, the lyrics should be aimed at spiritual redirection towards God, and increasing faith.  Let us not just look at the crowds which we will attract. Some people may just use music for aesthetic pleasure or as a therapeutic experience with no reference to God at all. Some may not even consider the words at all, and sing them out as meaningless phrases. The question is whether we actually glorify God with such music or ourselves. Let our praise and worship become a genuine cry unto God, “A prayer of David. Hear, O LORD, my righteous plea; listen to my cry. Give ear to my prayer--it does not rise from deceitful lips”. Psalm 17:1

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“In Isaiah’s day the human crowds were still present for worship; it was God who had opted out. The problem for religious leaders then was not how to get people to come back to attending worship; it was how to get God to attend. It might be wise even in the present to look at worship from that perspective.”  J.J.M. Roberts

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