How Do We Engage our Heart?

My name is Bryce Reed and I am a student at Lancaster Bible College. I am a junior studying Pastoral Ministry. I have been reading a book called “Treatise on Good Works: The Annotated Luther Study Edition” by Timothy J. Wengert. I have enjoyed the book so much that I have decided to write a blog post about it. This week I read from pages 302–330. Luther in talking about worshipping God in the context when he was still a part of the catholic church pre-Reformation. He says, “At Mass, it is necessary that we be present with our hearts as well as our minds… If you do nothing at Mass but stand there without realizing or believing that through this testament Christ has promised and bestowed the forgiveness of all your sins, how is that different from you saying, ‘I do not know or I do not believe that forgiveness of my sins is promised and bestowed here’?” (p. 304). Essentially, Luther is telling us that we cannot just repeat some words or just say things for liturgical sake, but we have to let it sink to our hearts when we worship.

The whole reason for worship is to praise God for all that He has done. To praise Him for choosing to love us and to bring Him all the honor, glory, and praise that He so deserves. Oftentimes, the heart during worship for many people is completely disengaged. We can go to church and stomp our feet to the beat of the music or just repeat words on a screen, or from a book, or even from memory. We sing and say these praises to God, yet we do not engage our hearts, and it begs to ask if we are even worshipping God at all.

Our hearts are completely and totally depraved. Our motives are something that we constantly have to be in check of. We must ask God search us as David tells us “and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Ps. 139:24 KJV). In our worship we must fully surrender. We can worship, lift our hands maybe because other people are doing that. Maybe it’s because we want others to perceive us as “great worshippers”. “Our purpose is to please God, not people. He alone examines the motives of our hearts.” (1 Thess. 2:4b NLT). He examines our hearts and so why, if God knows the heart, do we think we can give Him half-baked worship?

We are worshipping a God who sent His only Son to pay a debt that we could never afford. We worship a God who, while we were still a long way out, runs out to meet us, wrapping a cloak around us, putting a ring on our finger and celebrating because we were once dead and now alive, blind but now we see (Prodigal Son in Lk. 15). This God whom we worship deserves more than anything that I can give Him.

Imagine your kid runs up to you and says, “Daddy/Mommy, I made this for you.” You look down and it is no masterpiece from Andy Warhol or Vincent Van Gogh. Rather, it is something that your child made of you and them together holding hands and having a sweet memory together, and that picture means more to you than a painting from any of these famous and well-known people. You gladly accept the painting even though it really is not going to win any awards, but you know that they crafted that from their heart. This is, in a way, similar to how our worship is displayed before God. We offer Him something to the best of our ability and it really is not all that great compared to what God deserves, but He gladly accepts and tells us that He loves us. That is a God worth worshipping and praising.

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