Sung Worship

I've just got back from New Wine LSE 2011 and had an amazing week; such an emotional rollarcoaster but also learnt so much about myself and God. I started the week in one place and ended in a completely different place (metaphorically speaking of course!) and wanted to share some of what I had learnt.

I attended Venue 2 in the mornings and Venue 1 in the evenings, partly to see the difference and as I was the only member of my church group going to Venue 2 I didn't want to be a loner all the time! I loved Venue 2 in the morning, was really able to let go of a lot of rubbish in my life, and loved worshipping there. Being on my own I could completely let go and not worry what people thought of me as I knew I wouldn't see them again after the week was up! The difference in worship music was only slight and I started analysing it in more detail as I kept crying in the mornings and not the evenings and wondered if I was going slightly mad!

The difference I found was that the music in Venue 1 was designed to worship God for who and what He is and I was able to really think about how amazing God is and how worthy of praise. I know that this is the primary purpose of worship: to give everything to God, to praise Him and not search for anything in return. But in Venue 2 the music was designed to worship God for what He has done. Now this is what upset me, what made me think so many times in the morning: I was so grateful to God for forgiving me, for holding on to me, for saving me and always being there to protect and guide me, I became a blumbering wreck every morning!

Is this ok in worship? To see that difference it made me wonder: should I be praising God for who He is rather than concentrating on what He has done for me?

I came to the conclusion that God knows me, that He is happy when I worship Him and there must be patterns and waves in worship so that it reflects our changing seasons too. God is constant and faithful, we are definitely not and sometimes our worship reflects our issues and gratitude rather than simply worshipping God for who He is. My worship this week in Venue 2 reflected how much I need God and how important He is in my life; giving myself to God completely meant letting go and relying on Him, it meant coming to Him humbly, knowing that I was weak, pathetic and so needed Him.