Real worship is far more than just singing songs. It is about our hearts – and expressing what is in our hearts to God. Jesus told us, in Matthew 22:37 that the greatest commandment is to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." This is the essence of true worship. Our songs should be an expression of what is in our hearts and our lives should mirror the words that we sing. Only then is our worship authentic.
I've had the amazing privilege of teaching about worship in various nations around the world. I remember one specific time, when after teaching I felt it right to move into a time of worship at the end of the session. I wanted to move from theory to practical. But I did something very specific and intentional: I challenged those there not to join the singing unless they truly meant what the words said, and were ready to put them into practice.
Some words roll off our tongues with a casual ease far lighter than the weight of the meaning really requires.
- I surrender all
- I will offer up my life
- I will take up my cross
That last one is especially dangerous because it is a metaphor. But it's not just a metaphor.
Matthew 16:24 Then Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."
Take up your cross is not just a metaphor
I live in the UK and we're fortunate that here we are, on the whole, pretty free to preach the gospel. We don't have to go to church in secret. We're not in fear that there could be a knock at the door, a police raid and we'll all go to prison. In various places around the world that is a reality. It's a very real danger for many of our brothers and sisters. They live under threat of punishment, prison and death.
On two or three occasions I've gone to places, stepped into situations where I knew there was a very real risk of danger. Twice I have narrowly escaped being stoned. I'm not joking. One time when we were preaching we managed to get in our vehicles and get away as they were pelted with rocks. Windows got cracked as we sped away.
Take up your cross is not just a metaphor.
Praise God - we got away and no one was killed. But that isn't always the case. Our attitude needs to be like Daniel's friends when they said: "If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty's hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up." (Daniel 3:17-18) (Emphasis mine)
I am not sharing this to try and make myself sound heroic or courageous. Honestly, humanly speaking, I am actually pretty risk-averse. But as my Pastor says - one of the reasons we share testimonies is to demonstrate what God can do despite us, not because of us. It's not about saying "I'm so great, look what I can do" it's about saying "God is so great he can even do something like this through anyone… if he can help me like this - then he can do it for you".
What surrender actually costs
Now, I am not saying that we are all called to go to physically dangerous situations - and I am certainly not saying that we should seek out danger or go and be deliberately confrontational or provocative. Scripture says "as far as it depends on us we should try and live at peace with everyone". But we do need to be careful about lowering the bar - just having people laughing at us or thinking we are weird… that's not fun, but it's not the peak of "persecution". We need to keep things in perspective and we need to remember those who face very real danger because of their faith in our prayers.
Facing things like: socially awkward situations; minor embarrassment or inconveniences may be part of learning to die to self, but they are far from the full weight of what Jesus was talking about. If we're not even willing to risk those - looking foolish, not getting everything our own way, being inconvenienced in some way… Well, perhaps that's something we need to pray about. And perhaps we should consider stopping singing "I surrender all" if we are not actually willing to surrender an extra 5 minutes at the end of a scheduled service? I'm going to put it bluntly. These sorts of things are the very least we should be willing to endure, not the most.
Some things we sing in worship are downright dangerous. If we don't really mean them, they are dangerous because we risk lying to God. If we do mean them, they're dangerous because one day he might just ask us to make good on what we've said.
Daily, not once
In Luke's gospel the quote about taking up our cross is said a little differently: "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." (Luke 9:23) Notice Jesus says - daily. This is a continual thing. It's not like the Scouts. You don't do it once - get your "Surrender badge" and move on. This is something we have to walk out again and again, sometimes in different ways, sometimes in the same ways - for the rest of our lives.
