Naked Worship…

As Christians we talk a lot about worship and what it means to us, how to define it, and how we approach it. We have all heard that God wants authentic worship and that we should be real when we enter into his presence. But how many of you struggle with that? Do you find it hard to “be real” when you worship?

It’s interesting to me how, as a culture, we want to be so individualistic and push so hard to be ourselves, yet when we walk into the walls of a church, it all seems to change. We put on masks and suddenly don’t act like ourselves. Honestly, we can turn fake.

The Church loves to preach that it is a place to come as you are and be real, but how well do we facilitate that? How much do we really mean that?

All of this will tie into how we worship, how authentic we are, and how we experience the presence of God.

I love how this verse in John puts how we should worship. It is a verse that I constantly remind myself of when I am approaching my worship. It really is important to take off our masks, lower our guards, to be real, be authentic, and to be vulnerable.

We need to be emotionally and spiritually naked if you will. Bringing only our truest selves to the table. Our purest essence.

“It’s who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That’s the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. God is sheer being itself—Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration.” John 4:23 MSG

Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. I love this sentence! God doesn’t want us going through the motions. We may be faking others by how we act and display ourselves when worshipping, but God truly knows our hearts. He is looking for simplicity and honesty. He is looking for real and authentic. He is looking for naked worshippers. (please not literally of course!)

This is a reminder that I need continually, how about you?

How do you authentically approach worship?