Worship As a Journey
Our goal is intimacy with the Lord
by Lindell Cooley

One Sunday morning in early August 1995, I was standing in the pastor's lounge at Brownsville Assembly of God with Pastor John Kilpatrick, discussing the order of service for that morning. When I took a moment to look out the window, I noticed someone whom I had seen before, but I guess I'd never seen her quite the way I did that morning

Walking toward the building was a beautiful woman-red curls, brown eyes, porcelain skin. She was wearing a blue dress. She had one hand in her hair as she came across the parking lot. I remember when I saw her that day, my jaw dropped and all I could say was "WOW!" Her name is Amber, and to make a long story short, she is the beautiful woman I now call my wife.

Now, you might think this is just a nice romantic story about my wife and me, but let's look at it in a different light. This is what the Lord caused to stick in my mind about that story. Although I had seen Amber in revival services on occasion before, that Sunday it was as if I were seeing her for the very first time.

How many of us-church members, pastor, ministers, Christian workers, Sunday School teachers, or volunteers for a host of other things that happen week to week in church life-have still never seen the "WOW!" of God? It's amazing that we can spend our lives around the things of God, and yet never really be "wowed" by Him.

David wrote, "Come and see what God has done, how awesome His works in man's behalf!" (Psalm 66:5 NIV). WOW! Look what the Lord has done! One day, after knowing a lot about God, I was "wowed" by Him-and continue to be. To see Him like that for the first time immediately set something in motion. I realized that I wanted more than just to know that He exists. I wanted to see how awesome He really is.

I've realized that there are a few steps to this process:

1. Seeing Him. This is the step when we move beyond "knowing He exists" to seeing how awesome He truly is. When we see Jesus through the Word and see for ourselves how wonderful He is, we can't help but want more. That leads to...
2. Desiring Him. The Scripture says, "As the deer pants for steams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God" (Psalm 42:1-2 NIV). Imagine what God would do if all His people would pant after Him the way we pant after other "stuff," such as the approval of men.
   
   If we feel that our worship is just dutiful rhetoric that we go through, then we are not really worshipping; we are merely performing a religious ritual. The Lord doesn't want our worship to be just service. He wants us to desire Him-and our worship should be an expression of that.
3. Pursing Him. As Paul told the Philippians, "I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus... I want to know Christ" (Philippians 3:8,10 NIV). I'm pursuing a relationship with Him. I know that I have His love, His forgiveness, and His acceptance-but I want Him to have me.
4. Loving Him. This is the next step. Worship must go beyond seeing how awesome He is, past desiring Him, and even past pursuing Him. It should move us into a love relationship where we become more and more desperate for Him! To be desperate is to have an extreme need for something or someone. That desperation brings us to the place where we begin to worship Him "in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24 NIV).

You may find yourself at any one of these stages. Whatever point you are at, I encourage you to move on to the next stage. There's more for you! Our prayer can be, "Lord, I want to know YOU. I want to pursue YOU. I want to love YOU with all my heart, my soul, and my mind. I'm desperate for intimate time in Your presence."

Stay on Fire!

Lindell