As I was laying in bed last night thinking about my last blogrant on energy, I thought briefly that the metaphor isn’t entirely accurate. After all, the Law of Conservation of Energy states that energy is never created or destroyed - it can’t just disappear. On the other hand, when it comes to fire in worship, it seems to do just that - disappear!
I started wondering how this always happens, and within seconds I realized that conservation of energy is still true - energy doesn’t disappear, even when we’re talking about emotional energy. It has to come from somewhere and end up somewhere. If fire is given by God, then logically when it’s taken away it must be the work of the Enemy. In the same instant, I knew I had the answer to another question that had been eating me: If worship is a lifestyle, what’s the point of our hour on Sunday?
Worshipping God literally means declaring that He is worthy. Obviously this can be verbal, but it seemed to me that the real worship happens in the other 167 hours of the week, when we actually do things that show whether we value God or not. What’s so important about singing for 30 minutes that we don’t do during the rest of the week? The answer, or at least part of it, follows from my earlier revelation: worship is warfare.
Let me say that again for emphasis: WORSHIP IS WARFARE! Here’s the proof: Satan is called the father of lies, and lies are his primary weapon. Truth is one of our main defenses, and we worship “in spirit and in truth.” If we’re worshipping in truth, we’re dealing with a powerful force for defeating Satan’s lies. I think this is the main point of worship through song. After all, what can God gain from our sing-alongs? He’s already God - He’s already worthy, and nothing we say or do can add or take away an ounce of his worth. When we stand before His throne to be judged, the crucial question is not “What did you sing about Me?” The more important questions are “Did you love Me?” and “What did you do about it?”
Musical worship is not even mainly evangelistic. No one will be impressed by a bunch of people singing about how great God is and how he loves to heal the broken, even if they sing it very passionately and sincerely. What will make a difference is when we do something about it - do great things for God and be His servants to the broken. I think the main point of our songs, at least while we’re here on Earth, is warfare. Satan is constantly on our backs, siphoning off our energy and our joy. He lies to us and plants doubt in our minds. From the beginning, he’s been asking: “Did God really say…?” When we gather together for that hour on Sunday, we are combatting those lies with the truth of who God is, what He’s done, and what He says. If we don’t constantly remind ourselves of the truth, we’ll quickly forget. If we do, we’ll find that we send the devil running, strengthen our armor, and re-equip with the joy we need to make it through the week.
There’s an old song that says: “Turn your eyes upon Jesus / Look full on His wonderful face / And the things of Earth will grow strangely dim / In the light of His glory and grace.” I’ve found this to be very true - the problem is when we take our eyes off of Jesus. The things of Earth stay dim compared to the joy we had in Him, and soon we become depressed and nothing seems worthwhile. This is exactly where Satan wants us. This is why worship as we normally think of it is not just important but absolutely critical! This is beyond life-or-death importance; it’s a battle for our very souls!
This is the real meaning of the band name Don’t Look Down - although it originally came from 1 Timothy 4:12 and meant don’t look down on us because we’re young, now I see it as a plea: don’t look down from Jesus. Stay focused on Him, and everything will work out.