Joy In Worship
By Pastor Darryl Manning
As you might expect, the
message of joy had a drastic impact on our worship. In
years past I had played a guitar with the musicians during
worship. God began to lead me into deeper worship until I
could no longer worship and play my guitar.
I always knew that, as
pastor, it was important that I worship in a visible way
and help others gain freedom to worship. One Sunday, while
worshipping, the Lord said.
“I want you to worship me with all your strength.”
Immediately I knew that meant my worship must increase to
a level that would put a demand on my physical strength. I
was reminded of the story of David in 2 Samuel 6 where he
“danced before the Lord with all his might.”
I had never been a dancer.
I never danced in a secular way and never in church. I was
not against others dancing and actually enjoyed watching.
But, I believed that everyone’s worship was private
between them and God and I didn’t need to dance.
The fact is, I had always
been somewhat timid in expressing my worship. I was much
more free in my worship while on the platform because I
knew I should be an example of worship.
Actually, in the
congregation, I had difficulty even raising my hands to
the Lord. One day, I was worshipping with my hands about
shoulder high when the Lord said:
“You’re ashamed of me. You raise your hands on the
platform as a leader but I want you to worship boldly in
the congregation too.”
I immediately lifted my
hands as high as I possibly could and the presence of
Jesus immediately filled my heart.
Now I was faced with
another decision. Would I dance and worship with all my
strength? Talk about a hard thing. At that time, very few
in our congregation danced at all and I had never danced
in my life.
Finally, I began to shuffle
my feet a little. Even this small movement brought another
problem. My knees were in pain. Many years previous I had
injured my right knee playing football. For many of my
younger years in the ministry I was bi-vocational and had
a carpentry business. I was not wise enough to wear
kneepads and my knees took a real beating. I also loved to
play basketball and I had played weekly for the much of
the past twelve years. All this had taken its toll on my
knees. They were so bad I had a very difficult time
ascending and descending the stairs that led to the lower
level of our church.
After a few weeks of trying
to dance before the Lord, one of my Elders came to me with
a “Word” from the Lord:
“Keep dancing and I will heal your knees.”
I kept dancing and the Lord
healed my knees. Now, I have no pain navigating the
stairs. I can play sports and there is no pain.
Occasionally, a pain tries to come, but after I rebuke the
devil and stand against him the pain goes away.
My dancing is still not of
a quality to boast about, but my worship has risen to the
point I no longer wear a coat during worship. By the end
of most of our celebration times I am wet with
perspiration and worn out. If we had services every day I
would never need to work out.
As God began to give us joy
and teach us about joy, it became natural to celebrate
with joy in worship.
Unfortunately, many people believe as I previously did
about worship. They believe that everyone can do what is
right in their own eyes. However, God has helped me see
that worshipping with all our strength is not an option
that we can take or leave. We are actually commanded by
God as to how we should worship. We shall see this in
subsequent chapters.
The following is now part
of our church bulletin so that everyone who attends our
celebration will know what God commands concerning
worship.
Celebrative Worship:
God commands celebrative
worship. Many scriptures instruct us to worship with
shouting, clapping and dancing. Here are just a few.
peoples! Shout to God with the voice of triumph!
rejoice, you righteous; And shout for joy, all you
upright in heart!
and dancing, praise him with the strings and flute, 5
praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with
resounding cymbals. 6 Let everything that has breath
praise the LORD.
