My Notes
Personal Reflection Guide
As you reflect back on the worship and the message from this weekend, what was your experience like? Did you learn something new, something that challenged you? Did you find it rather easy to give God your full attention and praise him the way he was meant to be praised? What obstacles made it hard to get there in your heart and head? What distracted you? Is it hard to understand who God is so that you can worship him? God has wired us to be worshipers. The question is whether we are worshiping the right things. Although we don’t have the more vivid idols of the Old Testament, such as the god of Baal to dance around anymore, our loves and our lives often circle around ourselves, our possessions, careers and other modern day gods we’ve constructed. What excites you? What consumes you? Where do you find your mind wandering off to multiple times in a day? Your answer to those questions will lend clarity to what you worship. The truth is that worship--true worship of God--is often not just something that happens for us, it is a discipline and it is a decision. We have to fight for it. Matt Redman wrote a song about worship and in his lyrics he penned, “I am coming back to the heart of worship and it's all about you, it’s all about you Jesus, I’m sorry Lord for the thing that I’ve made it, when it’s all about you.” If you find that you have been worshipping the wrong god, just start out with these words and confess to God that you are sorry you’ve replaced him. Have a conversation with God now about worship, about what you learned this weekend and about how you need his help learning to worship him in spirit and in truth. It may always be an inner battle to get to the authentic place of worship, but it is worth the fight, because we were made to worship him.
Discussion Questions
- If we asked your closest friends what you worship (what you value the most, what takes your time and energy), what do you think they would say?
- Read Psalm 103:1-6. What are some of the specific reasons that make God worthy of your personal worship (e.g. what good things has he given you, what has he saved your from, what has he forgiven you of)?
- Read Hebrews 12:28. What would it look like for you to worship God in holy awe and fear? In what ways does your worship on the weekends match (or not match) that picture?
- Read Psalm 102:21-22. What do you think it is about worshiping with other people that makes the experience different or more significant?
- Read Psalm 100:2. What holds you back from worshiping with abandon? What can you do to change it?
- Read Romans 12:1. What living, continual sacrifices can you make to bring God the kind of worship he deserves?