Our Thoughts and Worship
Do you pay attention to your thoughts?
Researchers report that over 6,000 thoughts move in and out of our minds, daily, mostly unnoticed. But giving our attention to them can be quite informative.
Like last Sunday in church. With our worship team leading, we were singing a lovely old hymn, one of my favorites. I was totally enjoying it.
Oh Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder, consider all the worlds thy hands have made.
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, thy power throughout the universe displayed.
Then sings my soul, my Savior, God to thee. How great thou art. How great thou art.
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee. How great thou art. How great thou art.
This is a powerful heavy-duty worship song and I’m sure it is delightful to God’s ever-present ears. As I sang, I remembered learning this hymn with my Sunday school class many years ago. The teacher had a little film that she entered into a projector and manually moved the film from one frame to the next while singing and teaching us each verse. We sat in little chairs all lined up, facing the screen.
As we sang How Great Thou Art, I thought of that scene and enjoyed it for a moment before remembering that this was worship and it was God I was singing to. So I thanked him for that memory and pulled my mind back to worshiping him instead of thinking about my childhood. Ah. Yes.
As the next verse started up, I found myself thinking about the writing of several women who I follow on Instagram. (Really? Where did that come from?) They post often and their writing is deep and rich. Of course, then I moved to, I really should post more often. And on to, I guess I’m not as talented as they are. Oh, it is such an easy downward slide.
Once again I realized, that my thoughts were intruding on my worship of God. This time the thoughts were accusatory and negative. For a length of time, I let my worship of God cease and let thoughts about myself take my attention.
What was happening? Maybe Peter can shed some light on this:
Do you remember the story in Matthew 14, where Peter saw Jesus walking on the water toward his boat? Peter cried out saying, “Lord, if it’s you, tell me to come to you on the water.” Jesus called back, “Come!” In the asking, Peter focused fully on Jesus, and, at that moment, he was able to walk out on the water. But it didn’t take long for him to start looking around. His attention shifted to the blowing wind and billowing waves and, as he became afraid, he began to sink. Jesus reached out his hand and caught Peter. But as he helped him back into the boat, he named Peter’s fear, calling it a lack of faith.
This story makes me wonder about the times we truly want to worship God but then find our minds entertaining thoughts about what’s for lunch or last night’s movie. Maybe we’re feeling irritated at the repetitions. It could be that we are frustrated because this “new song” is hard to sing. Perhaps we don’t like the wording of that particular lyric. Or it could be that we find ourselves thinking about an impatient word spoken to us on the way to church. Where are our thoughts as we worship?
We need to pay attention. Do we merely lack focus or is it something deeper, like unbelief? Or doubt? Are we taking our eyes off Jesus and onto the wind? Do we really believe that God is there, enjoying us and the honor we are giving him?
What can we do?
In her book, Get Out of Your Head, author, and speaker, Jennie Allen writes,
“What is the one thought that can successfully interrupt every negative thought pattern? It’s this: I have a choice. That’s it. The singular, interrupting thought is this: I have a choice. If you have trusted in Jesus as your Savior, you have the power of God in you to choose! You are no longer a slave... You have a God-given, God-empowered, God-redeemed ability to choose what you think about.”
During worship this morning I realized pretty quickly what was happening and, yes, I chose to stop that rogue thought by denying its truth and giving it to Jesus, once again. Then I turned my mind back to worship the One I love. But I had to pay attention and realize that I had a choice and then make a change.
After we were finished singing, I thought about how easy it is to slip out of worship and into self-focus. Self-focus keeps us from actually receiving what God wants to do in us as we worship.
In You Are What You Love, author James K.A. Smith writes: “Worship isn’t just something we do; it is where God does something to us. Worship is the heart of discipleship because it is the gymnasium in which God retrains our hearts.”
As we worship, are we concentrating on our Lord, expecting him to meet us and fashion our hearts toward him? Worship is a time to honor him and to open our minds and hearts to his formation work in us. I don’t want to miss it!
Here are a few of my thoughts about paying attention during worship:
Worshiping at home during the week, where the distractions are fewer, can help train our minds to focus. Sitting with God and a Bible verse, thinking about him, and looking for him, opens our hearts and minds to him.
It is valuable to realize that God speaks to us during worship! Part of the mystery and beauty of worship involves keeping our minds directed toward him and welcoming what God is saying back to us.
As we worship, let’s remember that we have a choice and keep bringing our thoughts back home to God.
Let’s visualize ourselves as the one Jesus loves. When we find our minds wandering, we can turn back. We can come home. We can return to him in thankfulness and wonder. Maybe we will come as the prodigal son and find ourselves being embraced by our grace-filled father. Or perhaps we will come as Peter, with Jesus holding our hands while the wind blows in the wild and terrifying chaos. We can sit with these powerful images while remembering the privilege it is to come home to the presence of our grace-filled God who loves us dearly.
Recently, I have been finding it helpful to read and pray through the scripture text ahead of time for the day’s sermon. When I get to church, I already know the theme and can worship in the light of that knowledge. Last week the sermon focused on God as LORD High and Mighty. I enjoyed discovering those themes as we worshiped. This week we learned about the sufficiency of Christ and because I had prepared ahead of time, I saw this theme reflected all through the service. I found it to be quite enjoyable!
Perhaps it would help to take a small woolen or wooden heart or cross to hold during worship. It could remind you, with your sense of touch, that you are loved by God. It would help to bring your mind back home to him when it tends to wander.
(If you are interested in where to purchase a wooden heart or cross, let me know. I would also be happy to give you a small woolen heart - for free!)
The truth is, we all get distracted.
But worship is serious stuff.
It’s not just singing songs together. Worship is coming home to the One who has his eyes on us, waiting for our return. And his joy overflows when we come. He meets us in worship and offers us himself and all his generous love.
Psalm 96 encourages us to…
Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord, all the earth!
For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise.
Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and glory are in his sanctuary.
Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness; tremble before him!
In the presence of God, there is no room for self-focus. Splendor and majesty are fierce competitors!
Let’s build up our focusing brain “muscles” so they will be ready to look at him with adoration and say, Yes! Let me tell you how great you are and how much I love you. Let’s prepare ahead of time to meet with our God on Sunday morning so that we can find the themes, be delighted by the worship, and in turn, receive all he has to give. And let’s remember that we have a choice about where our thoughts go. Our God is great and worthy of our full attention.