Cause and Effect

The relationship of cause and effect is simple to demonstrate. Add an Alka-Seltzer tablet to carbonated water, and it will explode. Give two children one marshmallow, and a fight will ensue. Brake using one handlebar, and you’ll flip over your bike. These examples explain why cause and effect is often thought of as something negative. However, when it comes to our worship, it is something very positive.

Understanding why we worship will lead to how we worship—cause and effect. If our worship is self-focused, and we are too busy thinking about our problems to focus on the Lord, our worship will not be pleasing to God. Some Sundays, I can’t seem to focus during church. The words of the worship songs don’t draw me in, and even though I’m singing the words, my mind and my heart are elsewhere. The words of the pastor enter one ear and promptly whiz through the other. Instead, I’m so focused on my problems, my schedule, my next item to check off. My heart is anywhere but where it should be during this time, which leads to me feeling far away from God, even though I just had the perfect opportunity to draw close to Him through worship.

However, if our worship is, instead, focused completely on God—his magnificence and the reverence he deserves—we will experience true worship. Next time you’re headed to church, Bible study, or anywhere that should be solely about God, take a little time beforehand to calm your mind, to give God your worries and troubles, and to lay your heart bare. Worship is just as much about the preparation as it is about the act itself because without proper preparation, the act will be stinted.

We must realize that in order to worship God as he should be worshipped, we need to take ourselves out of the equation – cause and effect.

*Photo credit: Image courtesy of posterize / FreeDigitalPhotos.net