Increasing Your Depth Of Worship

If you have come to faith in Jesus and are now living out your faith, all of us at some point want to grow in our depth of worship. I have recently been reading Play The Man by Mark Batterson. There is a passage in the book in which he writes about how we grow in depth about certain subjects, which he then correlates to us growing in our depth of worship.


.....During a rather fascinating TED talk, an expert in visual perception named Ed Seckel showed the audience a wide variety of images. One of them was a stenciled drawing of a couple intimately embracing. The audience immediately recognized what it was, but according to Seckel, children have no clue ! Why ? Because they have no prior memory to associate with it. Some of the kids said they saw nine dolphins!

You can't see what you don't know !

In his mind- bending book Mozart's Brain and the Fighter Pilot, Richard Restak shares a profound truism: learn more, see more.

The richer my knowledge of flora and fauna of the woods, the more I'll be able to see. Our perceptions take on richness and depth as a result of all the things that we learn. What the eye sees is determined by what the brain has learned.

When astronomers look into the night sky, they have a greater appreciation for the constellations, stars, and planets. They see more because they know more. When musicians listen to a symphony, they have a greater appreciation for the chords, melodies, and instrumentation. They hear more because they know more. When sommeliers sample a wine, they have a greater appreciation for the flavor, texture, and origin. They taste more because they know more.
Now , juxtapose that with this:
 You Samaritans worship what you do not know.
John 4:22

The Samaritans were worshiping God out of ignorance. And when we worship out of ignorance, our worship is empty. We don't even know who or what or why we're worshiping!

Have you ever been guilty of apologizing to your wife without really knowing what you're sorry about? You just want to end the argument ! I've been guilty of this a time or two, and sometimes my wife calls my bluff. Lora will ask me what I'm sorry about, and she's got me dead to rights. I have no clue what I'm sorry about. I'm just sorry !

That kind of apology is disingenuous, isn't it? If you don't even know what you're sorry about, it's an empty apology. And many of us worship God the same way. We sing the words on the screen, but do we really know what they mean? If God interrupted our singing and asked us why we're singing what we're singing, we'd be speechless.

Jesus offers a solution:
God is Spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the spirit and in truth.
John 4:24 

We think of spiritual and intellectual pursuits as mutually exclusive endeavors, but they are one and the same. Great love is born of great knowledge. In fact, your knowledge is your worship ceiling!

Knowledge does not automatically translate into worship. But in some respects, quality of worship is determined by quantity of knowledge. The more you know, the more you have to worship.

Learn more, worship more.