Episode #304 The Relational Heart of Worship – Unforced Rhythms of Grace

Hey friends. Today I wanna talk about the relational nature of worship. If you're like me, you can default to doing things for God. And so in worship settings, especially where we're singing songs or raising our hands or clapping, it can sometimes feel performative.

We may ask even, Lord, how am I doing? And that “how am I doing?” perspective doesn't just stop in worship settings. It can carry through into other areas of life. God, how am I doing in my spiritual disciplines? How am I doing in my Bible reading? How am I doing as a parent or a spouse or a friend or a daughter? But when we ask that question of the Lord from this perspective of achieving, accomplishing, performing, we're missing the real question.

And I was thinking about this in the context of my relationship with my husband, Jared. Every once in a while, we'll do check-ins with each other. Hey, how are we? But I can't recall the time that I've approached him to say, hey babe, how am I doing as your wife? How am I doing as I am executing my part of our family responsibilities? My approach to him is relational because of the intimacy of our relationship. Those questions are more often, hey, how are we? How can I love you intentionally right now with your workload or the season that we're in? And so I was thinking about this in the context of relationship because that's what God offers us.

In John 17:3, Jesus says, now this is eternal life. Now, before I read the rest of the verse, I wanted to say this: I used to think what would come next here is that “you get to come to heaven one day. Now, this is eternal life that someday when you are hopefully very old and you pass away, you will come into my kingdom in heaven and you will get to meet me face to face.” But that's not how Jesus continues in this verse.

The actuality of John 17:3 is this, “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” See, eternity is ongoing. It has no start. It has no end. And we as believers get to participate in eternity, now. We get to participate in eternal life right now, which is relationship with God, from the point of receiving salvation and it will continue into heaven someday. God is so relational that he says, this is what eternal life is. To know God, to know me. He's talking to the Lord in this verse and he's saying, Hey, you know this Lord. This is eternal life: that your people know you and that they know me.

And so in the context of worship today, I wanna encourage us to talk with God, not from the perspective of, hey, how am I doing? But from the perspective of God, how are we? How is our relationship? Are we close? Are we growing? Am I drifting from you? God, how are we?

I often think of it from the perspective of the posture of our hearts. Even in scripture, it talks about how God turns the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of children to the Father. And I picture it like a pivot, like you are turned away and then you turn toward. I even used that vocabulary with Jared, like, I noticed I got offended about this thing, but I don't wanna turn my heart away from you. I wanna turn my heart toward you. It's a very relational perspective.

God, how are we as I come to worship you, to praise you. To attribute worth to see you, Lord, as you are. How are we? How can I turn my heart toward you in the truth of who you are, God?

Seeing God clearly fuels worship that is both all filled and personal. And so here's a question I encourage you to take to God to see what he would share with you:

God, how can I turn my heart toward you today?

Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

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