Devotion: Worship and Humility
Rationale:
As Christians we know that we are to worship. For many young people, though, worship remains a nebulous and underdeveloped concept. In this devotion, we seek to understand the link between worship and humility, seeing worship as a kind of kenosis: emptying out our assumptions and habits only to be refilled with God’s spirit.
Objectives: Members are to
- Develop an understanding of the nature of worship
- Identify the link between humility and worship
- Identify and develop some habits they could use to enter into more meaningful worship
- Through this develop a habit of hearing God’s voice and feeling His spirit move within them
Utilising Habits of Mind
- Thinking about thinking (metacognition)
- Remaining open to continuous learning
The following resources are dependent on the forum in which the devotion is delivered
i. Video clips of The Beatles in concert, focus on the audience. Take care if using this resource – do not drift into condemnation of idols as that is not the focus of the devotion.
ii. Geoff Bullock’s song “I Surrender”
iii. Bible Readings listed below
Most of us have been to a concert in which the audience is required to scream and shout at the band, to hang on their every word and to laugh at every joke. Many people are able to give themselves over to that experience very easily and we often measure the success of a concert or performance by the extent to which we were able to lose ourselves in the experience of it.
- Think of a time in which you have ‘lost yourself’ in a musical or artistic experience. (Some members might be able to connect the experience to film or to sport.) How did you feel prior to the experience and how did you feel after it?
Phase 2
In our time, many churches work very hard in attempt to replicate the experience of ‘taking in a show’. Hence, churches aim for high quality musicianship, polished and witty speakers who are able to present their material smoothly and incorporate audio-visual material. This is not a bad thing. However, sometimes this leads to the people feeling that they need do nothing to make the worship meaningful. If this is so, this is a misunderstanding of worship. ‘Worship’ needs to be understood primarily as a verb (something we do) rather than a noun (an event we attend). If we look at many scripture passages, we will see that worship is used to describe our relationship with God: through our worship we properly define our position towards God. Consider the well-known excerpt from Psalm 99: ‘Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his footstool. He is holy.’
ii. Look at some of the references in listed to see what is written about worship.
- Psalm 5: 7
- 1 Chronicles 16: 29
- Psalm 34: 3
- Psalm 95: 6
- Hebrews 12: 28
Phase 3: How then do we worship ‘acceptably’? What are some of the things we could do to help us ‘enter into worship’ without even worrying about the standard of music and preaching?
You could compile a big list but a key concept to think about is humility. Humility or ‘being humble’ is out of fashion in our time. Our culture does not really understand it. We tend to see it either as false modesty or as developing an unhealthy self-image. Actually, humility is really an act of ‘letting go’ or emptying out (kenosis). When we come to worship, we need to prepare ourselves for it by letting go of our worldly baggage, listening only to God’s voice, quietening the noise of the world, of our own will. After we ‘empty out’ we seek to ‘fill up’ with God’s spirit.
Application: Next time you are to attend church for worship, try to arrive 10 minutes early. Find a place on your own, avoid conversation and take some time to pray. Be as prepared as you can. A very simple way of preparing for worship is to say the Lord’s Prayer quietly and slowly.
If you have access, you could listen to or sing Geoff Bullock’s song “I Surrender.” It has an excellent description of spiritual humility: ‘everything I am and ever hope to be – I surrender to you.’
Tim Kelly
