Amidst all these expressions of the privilege and joy of worshipping God in Psalm 84, there arises an all too common, but honest question: What if I don’t view worship as a joyful privilege? You might attest to these thoughts: “Worship feels more like a chore than a delight. I struggle to have motivation to gather with God’s people; I can’t ever seem to spend consistent time and meditation in God’s word; My prayer life is fairly superficial and thus I typically end my time with the Lord more discouraged than encouraged.”
Of course, long term patterns of these dispositions should cause us to examine where we are at with the Lord, but almost every believer is going to have to fight the fight of faith to push past these barriers at some point. Here are a few things to consider that will hinder our worship:
1) Misplaced priorities—We know we are living for other things when God gets the scraps or leftovers of our time, if he gets anything at all. In this case, worship is getting in the way of advancing our status and security in life. Worship is in competition of our entertainment and our preoccupation with temporal things. Then we start talking as though we are victims of our schedules and that there is no possible way to find time to be preoccupied with God instead. Be very careful of this, because as we have stated many times before, God will never bring a busyness into your life that will lead you away from him. That is our doing alone. Next is a…
2) Deemphasized faith—Sometimes we think we have to feel delight or joy BEFORE we can worship or engage in spiritual disciplines. We must keep in mind that the feeling of joy cannot be the fuel that drives us to obedience. Our feelings are fickle and fallen and therefore they cannot be trusted. Instead, faith in God’s truth in the absence of delightful feelings will be what drives us to pursue God. What does God say is necessary and best for us? Then that’s what we do, regardless of how we feel. Lastly is an…
3) Erroneous focus—Instead of focusing on our privilege and obligation to worship God, it’s fairly easy to allow the sin and weaknesses of others to hinder our worship. Perhaps we could think about it this way: Unless there is someone in your life who is forbidding you from gathering with God’s people and reading your Bible, it isn’t possible for someone else to hinder your worship. Our pursuit of Christ is not based on what other people are doing or how they are acting. Neither is it about what kind of week we had; nor what problems may or may not have been solved. We have plenty of our own sin to confess to God and we have so many opportunities in which we need his grace and strength and thus are afforded many opportunities to thank him for giving that grace strength. That is one way the privilege of worship will be made more evident to us.