Isaiah 29:13 NIV
The Lord says:
“These people come near to me with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
is based on merely human rules they have been taught.
Hebrews 13:15
Through, Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of the lips that confess his name.
What does it mean to bring a sacrifice of praise?
This has come to mean more to me in the past couple of years than ever before. There has been more drama and more times of grief and loss than ever before in my life. For me, a sacrifice of praise means that I leave a part of me outside the door of the church. Sometimes, things aren’t going my way and it can be hard to focus on praise. A sacrifice of praise means to praise him anyway. There are times when I think someone might judge me for my expression of worship, be it raising my hands or some other expression. When that happens it stifles the sacrifice, which means I have to try to put aside what I think others around me might think, in order to truly be set free. The Bible often talks about the importance of posture when praying, the same is true in worship. Lifting your hands or even just your gaze acknowledges the One to whom the words are meant for. It can even be just allowing the tension to leave your body, being fully engaged in the freedom of true worship.
So many times going to a corporate worship service is just another thing to check off a list. It is comfortable, with rituals and practices that are within our comfort zone and don’t stretch us to truly participate in the corporate worship God. All of us have different environments that foster true worship for us and I am not here to debate which is best.
Maybe you have never brought a true Sacrifice of Praise. If not, I would encourage you to step outside your norm and let Worship be a little uncomfortable at first. Being uncomfortable sparks growth. It is so freeing to know that you have the ability to worship in the way that suits you best. Finding it, may mean being uncomfortable for a while. We felt a call to a new congregation a couple of years ago. When we first made the transition it all seemed foreign and uncertain. I had never been in a congregation with music so loud and hands lifted so freely. I wasn’t sure it was for me, but I knew God had called us to this place. I quickly saw the genuineness behind the unfamiliar and slowly but surely stepped out of my comfort zone and stretched my praise. Maybe you feel like raising your hands in worship but are in a place where this is not welcomed or maybe you just want to lift your gaze from the ground to ceiling as a gesture of praise but don’t want to seem to over zealous. Whatever it is, when you freely worship, you free others around you to do the same.
Even in a place that fosters freedom of worship, we still have to sacrifice all our stuff to do so. In the best of environments we can let ourselves get in the way and just stand going through the motions. Sacrifice means offering words of thanksgiving when you don’t feel thankful or offering feelings of joy when your are not so joyful. Now that I have found an outward posture that fosters worship to my fullest potential I have to stretch myself inside to free myself of all my junk in order to maintain the same intensity.
So, this Sunday I challenge you to bring praise, bring worship, sacrifice yourself, and receive a blessing!
I leave you with the words of popular praise and worship song:
We bring the sacrifice of praise
Unto the house of the Lord.
We bring the sacrifice of praise
Unto the house of the Lord.
And we offer up to You
The sacrifices of thanksgiving;
And we offer up to You
The sacrifices of joy.
