This opportunity to experience intimacy with God is available to us because God as the initiator of worship, continually calls out to us to be near Him and communion with Him. The believer chooses to worship God as a response to that call. The Biblle ensures that "none come unto God unless the Spirit draws Him."
Amid all that is going on in the world, it is God's delight to have an intimate relationship with His people. As far back as the Garden of Eden, Adam is said to have fellowshippped with God everyday in the "cool of the day." Throughout the Bible, we see God's plan unfold to draw us back to Himself and to have a people that will allow Him to be the center and the focal point of their worship. With God's provision, however, He does not coerce or force us to respond. He does not want that kind of worship because He has made us a people of free will. Instead it is a discipline to which we reverberate, "I will bless the Lord at all times, and His praise shall continually be in my mouth." When we sit and pout, refusing to give God glory, we are simply refusing His invitation to us. As believers, we unwittingly shun His love, mercy and grace that He has freely give to us. God is calling us to worship Him privately and corporately. He wants us to move beyond the exhileration we feel in worship and worship because we want to please Him.
Each believer must make a conscious effort to worship when we feel like it and when we don't. We must cultivate fellowship in worship with God that is based upon the discipline of obedience to our Lord. While the feeling of worship can be breathtaking, the discipline of worship should not be ignored.
Katherine Duke copyright 1999 All Rights Reserved