Something I’ve always said since I started following Jesus is that I feel Him most during worship. Singing out, praising Him, raising my hands; it makes me feel so close to Him. Those moments have been when I’ve had the clearest revelations of who He is, when I’ve felt His presence the strongest, and when He’s given me glimpses of His character. It’s amazing, and it’s something I constantly look forward to.
Worship through song has always been the one thing I can guarantee will bring me closer to my Father. But lately I’ve been wondering, what if that didn’t have to be the only way? What if worship wasn’t just in the singing? What if I could worship in everything I do? Is it possible that my own mindset has been the only thing stopping me from continuously being close to Him? These are questions I’ve been wrestling with over the past couple weeks. I touched on this a little in my last blog, about realizing how much my heart posture matters when I serve. God gave everything for me, so my serving should flow out of love, not obligation. Out of joy, not guilt.
One person who has shown me this so clearly is Carter. He is one of our squad leaders during our training and week of domestic missions. Carter is one of those people that you just know is filled with Jesus the moment you meet him. He looks at the world with such awe and wonder, and it’s beautiful to see. Honestly, at first it felt unusual, because you don’t typically see someone walking around that full of joy every single day, but that’s just who he is. Everything he does, he does with the intent of glorifying the Lord.
I wish I could properly capture what it’s like to see him interact with people and the world around him, but words just don’t fully do it justice. For a while, I caught myself thinking, I want to be more like Carter, but as time went on, I realized the reason I admire him so much is because he truly embodies and reflects the person I love most: Jesus!! Carter lives in a way that makes people encounter Christ through him, and that’s the kind of life I want to live too.
Since then, my perspective on worship has been shifting. Worship isn’t limited to music. Yes, worship can be singing and dancing, but it can also be taking out the trash, collecting plates after a meal, serving quietly in the background, or even just the way I choose to treat people. Worship is simply orienting my heart toward God in everything I do.
Paul writes in Colossians 3:17, “whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him,” and again in Romans 12:1 when he says to “offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship.”
Those verses make it clear that worship is not confined to a song set or a Sunday morning. Worship is a lifestyle. It’s in the small, unseen acts of obedience just as much as the big, loud moments of praise. It’s in giving thanks, choosing joy, serving others, and living every moment with Him in mind.
So now, instead of asking, “When can I worship again?” I’m asking, “How can I worship right now?” And that has changed the way I see even the most ordinary parts of my day. Maybe the most beautiful kind of worship is when we allow every piece of our lives, big or small, to point back to Him.
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