Thoughts for a Christian worshipper - states of mind/heart that God is pleased with and is attracted to from which worship comes naturally

             The human mind is very complicated and in the context of the Christian, most battles originate from the mind and battles are won or lost in the natural only after they are lost in the mind and thoughts eventually originate in the heart, this is why the Bible tells us to guard our hearts (Proverbs 4:23). We all have our vices, this applies to all men beyond just Christians and almost everyday, we are engaged in a battle with the enemy - an enemy greater than the devil himself which is our flesh. This is why the Bible lays out certain values that we are to seek and ask God to inculcate in us and bring into us as Christians, values like love, meekness, temperance, kindness, gentleness etc. By the end of this article we will see the single enemy that closes off the door to all of these positive values that can destroy our purpose as worshippers of the Lord. However, what are the states of our heart that God is pleased with?

i) A broken and a contrite heart:

   The Bible makes it clear that God will never despise a broken and a contrite heart (Psalm 51:17). In fact, the Bible goes a step further to state that God binds up the broken-hearted (Psalms 147:3). More than any other state of heart to operate from, if you are a worshipper of the Lord Jesus. If you are contrite, bear in mind that the Spirit of God - the Holy Spirit is closest to your heart. Perhaps, you have gone through a tough time in your life, storms have ravaged you throughly and it hurts deep down to be in that state as a human let alone as a child of Jesus Christ, yet we forgive the ones who wrong us as the Lord would have us do and we look to Him. In that moment, the Lord meets us in our most despondent time, when everything seems bleak and hopeless because God is our hope and our reason for a living. Look to the Lord my bretheren, He is close to your heart and His Spirit is not just there to comfort and console you but when you lead worship in that state, the Lord is able to use the brokenness of your heart to bring healing and restoration to people around you. A natural way to get to this state is to ask God to give us compassion for those who are suffering and are in need around us, their compassion will cause our hearts to get down to the level of brokenness in hopes that God would touch them, this implies that God will not just use you but also bring restoration and healing to your life when you are compassionate towards others.

ii) A hungry/thirsty heart:

   The second most powerful state of heart to operate from if you are a worshipper is to thirst for the presence of God. Do you thirst for the Lord's presence everyday and cannot have enough of Him?, do you seek the Lord not because of anything He can give you but because your ultimate goal is to get all of Him to pervade all of you and make you totally His?. Then your heart is right before God and God sees your longing for His presence being a part of your life. If you are the kind who asks God for stuff and not because you are interested in knowing Jesus in a deeper way, then feel free to ask the Lord prayerfully to put the desire in you to seek Him just for who He is and He will take you there. What God is looking for in us is that unquenchable thirst to receive Him in all His fullness and wondrous glory (Psalm 42:1-5).

iii) A thankful heart:

   Psalm 100:4-5 talks of entering God's presence with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. This kind of sets the tone for our worship with regard to how to start it all off - first, with thanksgiving by remembering God's past goodness and mercies towards us and recounting them as well as thanking Him for what is yet to come in our lives because God is gearing up in your life behind the scenes, just when you feel that it is time to gear down because from your perspective things seem to be slowing down and yet, it is in these moments of our lives when all seems to be hopeless or pointless that God feels free to work in an unbridled way in us and through us, even faith the size of a mustard seed is enough for God to work on. However, it all starts off with thanksgiving, I have noticed God stepping into my life in the past and working miracles when I chose to trust in Him when all was seemingly lost and thanked Him. So this state of heart is perfect for God to work with and use you as a worshipper to impact not just your life but those of others as well.

iv) A humble heart:

    There then comes a time in our lives when if we just reach out to God and tell Him "Lord, I do not know how to do this but I give you total control knowing that you will see this or that through, Holy Spirit come and take control and lead this session". Whether it is a worship session for which you have been called upon to lead worship, remember that it is not you or I but God who is the best worship leader (...and the list goes on depending on our need because there is no limit to what God can do in our lives based on our needs). If we struggle here, we can ask God to give us humility because the humbler we are, the greater the extent to which God can operate in and through our lives through His Holy Spirit. Moreover, the extent to which we would want God to be exalted and extolled through our praise and worship is only when we are in our most humble state, if we are high in our own eyes, then we cannot seek to exalt God in our lives because our minds are not lowly.

v) A prioritising heart:
   
    We can either seek God sincerely and diligently or we can be nonchalant in our approach. I would not want to envision any Christian believer seeking God carelessly at those moments when he/she seeks God. When we seek God carefully and diligently, one thing that stands out is how much we prioritise the Lord and our time with Him above other things, so we end up seeking the Lord early. When we seek God, we make it clear to the Lord that He comes first to us above all else and God honours those who honour Him. When we seek the Lord early in our day, God will bless the rest of the day and its matters for us automatically. If you are struggling with any sin, when you prioritise God first by running to Him when you feel all seems hopeless, you will see that God strengthens you to stand for Him for the rest of the day, so seeking the Lord early is key to living a victorious Christian life with the Lord's grace.

The ultimate enemy of worship - Pride:

    Pride is just the opposite of all the states of heart that we have discussed above especially iv). The one who is proud relies on his own talents, experience and expertise based on previous experience or any studies done on the subject - even theology. There cannot be a greater detrimental and retarding force or state mind that causes more damage not just to God's operation in our lives but also our relationship with God than pride. Picture this, you are a worship leader or an instrument player during worship and you wish to worship God and glorify Him, instead yourself comes between you and Him and you are full of yourself - before you know it, you end up being god in your own eyes, how can you then worship the true God - the Lord Jesus Christ?. The moment thoughts related to our talents as singers or musicians, experience and expertise comes in, then we cannot allow God to operate in us, God simply cannot operate through us and we have failed in our purpose as worshippers and then when we become high in our eyes, we fall!. This was the first error in worship in the Bible, worship is first for God and yes, God uses worship to touch and transform our lives but pride turns self to god and in so doing, destroys the ultimate purpose of worship which is to glorify the One True living God - the Lord Jesus Christ and those caught in pride glorify themselves instead of Jesus Christ. To this end, we need to remember that we are all equal before God regardless of social status, caste or any divisions brought by men, no matter our position, fame, name or wealth which ultimately are for God's glorification including our talents. So, the moment we realise that our talents were given by God to us to aid us to glorify His name better, we realise that our talents are actually worship tools that God has ultimately given us to shine brighter in this world for His name and His glorification. Therefore, we are to cast down every imagination and high-mindedness that creeps in unawares as God Word puts it in 2 Corinthians 10:5. So if the enemy tries to point to your talents, experience or anything else, remember that all of these are tools given by God to aid you and I to glorify the Lord's name and this is why the apostle Paul writes in Romans 12:1 

1I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

   So imagine offering yourself up as a living sacrifice to the Lord Jesus!, isn't that the best thing that you can do for the Lord as a worshipper?. Your very purpose for existing in this world revolves around that. All else, including your talents, education and so on were merely gifts given to you by God to help you fulfill that purpose meaningfully. God shows everyone that they need him, another dangerous trap of pride is the one who is proud will fail to realise that he needs God and who can realise this except the man who realises his own brokenness, faults and imperfections?, on our own, we are nobodies before God, what increases our value before Him is not our own efforts to be good but because of what He did out of His mercy, grace and ultimately His love for us. Hence the man who is humble and realises this is the one who is humble and in his/her humility, he/she realises that whoever we are, wherever we come from, whatever our wealth and fame may be - we are all broken and hopeless without God and that we need God because we are not perfect. We, as humans and created beings need to realise that what we need is not pride but God's love and lots of it - something that we can get more of only when we realise and acknowledge that we are hopeless on our own without God and all that we need to keep wanting to live life forever is the love of God - the Love that is given to us by His Holy Spirit shed abroad in our hearts that we have ready access to though Jesus blood, when we approach the Lord humbly, thankfully with a thirsty heart, diligently placing God first and when our heart is compassionate, broken and contrite!. God bless you all!