Do you have any wealthy friends?
I have a friend who has been very successful in his career and has accumulated a large amount of money as a result. While I once wanted to be as wealthy as my friend, my experience has changed my desires.
Over the years, I've watched my friend receive constant waves of people looking for a loan, investment, or just a wad of cash for being on this person's radar. Everyone had an agenda or an angle. My friend didn't have "ATM" printed on his T-shirt, but I sense he may have felt like it based on how people interacted with him. "Does anyone want to be in my life for me, or do they just want what I can give them?"
While I'm not seeking to live a life of poverty as a response, what I've seen has given me new respect for people like my friend. My experience has also caused me to question how I relate to God. As a pastor, I see many people relating to God, like my wealthy friend. Attendance at Sunday services, giving money to a church or charities, serving as a volunteer in the community - all of these can be genuine acts of worship and love, or they can be ways to get on God's good side and get what you want from God.
How we worship is one way to perceive the way we see and relate to God. In my church family, there's a woman who was recently diagnosed with cancer. Every song has deep meaning when she stands in the service on Sundays. So many songs we've sung have given words to her feelings and fears she was struggling to overcome. Her worship through Sunday singing has taken a whole new meaning for her and the team leading her.
Similarly, Tasha Layton's newest collaboration with Chris Brown, entitled "Worship Through It," expresses a similar sentiment. One section of the song includes the lines, "In the middle of my no way out, In the middle of my don't know how I hear You whisper to me peace be still."
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Life often leaves us reeling. We're still determining how we will find a way out of the crisis. We're still determining how the bills will get paid or how to solve the problem. We become increasingly anxious until we hear God inviting us into His Peace. This line reminds me of the words of Jesus in John 14:27, when he said, “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.”
In a candid video posted on Air1's Facebook page the day the song launched, Layton shared the origin behind the music and the message it represents. "I wrote this song about a dear friend who was diagnosed with cancer. I will say this - whatever you're walking through, whatever it is, God's got you. He loves you. He has your best interest in mind. He's never going to leave you. I hope you don't wait until you're on the mountaintop to worship. Worship in the valley. Worship before the miracle happens. Worship if the miracle doesn't happen the way you think. Worship through it."
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I appreciate Layton's words as she took listeners behind this song because they can offer a needed corrective to our relationship with God. Our worship and praise are often in response to God doing what we want or pray for. While this is certainly appropriate, especially if we're responding to something miraculous or beyond our capacity to do, there is a danger in only worshiping in those moments.
We are in danger when we worship God only for what He does for us rather than who He is to us. Worship is a response to God's unchanging character, not merely our momentary experience of Him. True worship recognizes God's glory based on His character, as we read in Psalm 33: "For the word of the Lord holds true, and we can trust everything he does. He loves whatever is just and good; the unfailing love of the Lord fills the earth."
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When we follow Layton's plea to worship through it, especially in unlikely spots like valleys and hospital waiting rooms, we're shifting our focus to who God is, not just our feelings about Him or even how we are experiencing him during that moment in time. We're realizing how awesome it is that cares for us. King David asked a great question in Psalm 8. "When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers— the moon and the stars you set in place—what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?"
When we worship God before a miracle occurs, we declare God's character and faithfulness, along with our sense of wonder over it. We're discovering a source of true strength for great battles, like a fight with cancer. When we lean into God in this way, we find the reminder that we are loved. God has not abandoned us. He loves us, and He is faithful. We can worship Him through anything!
Scott Savage is a pastor, author, and speaker with the best last name in the world. Scott’s writing helps people transform difficult circumstances into places where they can thrive. He leads Cornerstone Church in Prescott, Arizona, and loves watching movies with his wife and three kids. You can begin Scott’s newest project, The 21 Day Gratitude Challenge, today.
