Could this be what makes pleasing worship?

"I'll give you my worship; I'll pour it out on you. Let it be beautiful; let it be costly. Let it be innocent. Let it be holy, holy like you are."

These lyrics from a new song by Faith Alive Band stopped me in my tracks. "Beautiful...costly... innocent..." What powerful words.

It's so easy to think of worship as participating in a song service. Of course singing is part of worship. But Paul tells us offering our bodies as a living sacrifice is worship holy and pleasing to God. (Rom. 12:1)

That sounds great. But how does that work in real life?

The Message version leaves no room for confusion: "Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering."

I've wondered how my "everyday life" could be worship. I love my life! But some things, like my job, can be crazy hard. I believe God gave me the job - so in the difficulty, I question what I'm getting wrong.

But maybe nothing is wrong.

What if it's an opportunity to learn a new form of worship? What if the emotional cost of learning to embody the Lord's mercy, kindness and love is a sacrifice he finds pleasing?

Could the willingness to weep with him over broken children, without losing hope, be as beautiful to him as the most stunning melody? What about standing firm in the face of devastation, faithfully declaring his goodness?

It's relatively easy to sing for an hour on Sunday. Choosing to remain as guileless as a child, offering our love and our lives with no conditions or limitations...freely trusting in God's character regardless of what's happening around us or what anyone else says - what if that's the worship our Father is pleased to receive?

Every day we can choose to open ourselves up to him freely. So often it's easier to hide in the busyness covering our shame and inadequacy. But innocent means more than "not guilty." Innocence is without façade, trusting the character of the one we are approaching regardless of our own messes.

Beautiful...costly...innocent...this is pleasing worship. Stretch yourself towards finding what that looks like for you. It will change your life.

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