By Justin Miller

We sing this song on occasion in our Synaxis gathering. It’s a rock-anthem type song with a great beat. But it has an even greater message. Although this song wouldn’t fit musically for Sanctuary, I think both gatherings can learn a lot from its lyrics.

What would it mean for us as a congregation to live out these lyrics? “Praise Awaits You” and its title alone identifies that God is the reason for our gathering and the object of our praise (the You refers to Him). “Awaits” assumes a preparation for His praise.

 So what would it mean to prepare for the praise of the Triune God, Lord of all creation, and Friend of sinners?

The song suggests a few ways:

“We are gathered ready God to sing Your praise”

I’ve often heard that it’s difficult to engage in worship when we have a new song. The worship team has tried to keep that in mind so that we don’t do more than one new song a week. Although, if someone hasn’t attended every week then they might be surprised by having two songs or more they don’t know. A visitor is likely to not know any of the songs. So is the solution not to sing any new songs? If the church decided to do that 100 years ago, then we would never know songs like “How Great Thou Art” or “Great is Thy Faithfulness.” If the church decided to do that even 10 years ago, then we would never know songs like “Open the Eyes of My Heart” and “Shout to the Lord.”

Let me suggest a few other solutions.

1) Learn the music at home

Better yet, worship at home to the music. Every song we sing can be found on a CD or your favorite website for purchasing music. In fact, there’s a new Christian website www.songtouch.com where you can download great Christian music for only $.99 a song. There are several others like Wal-Mart, iTunes, Napster, etc. that have a great selection of Christian music. See below the current song lists for both Synaxis and Sanctuary.

2) Try your best to sing along and don’t worry if you hit each note and rhythm exactly right. God’s not concerned with your performance, just your heart.

In 2 Samuel 6, Michal, daughter of Saul, rebuked David for dancing wildly, even calling him vulgar. David responded saying, “It was before the LORD… I will celebrate before the LORD. 22 I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes.” If David can lay down his self-consciousness to dance wildly before the Lord, surely I can lay mine down and possibly sing off-key, as long as it’s “before the Lord.”

“Ready to respond to the glories of Your name To the wonders of Your heart, to Your great love”

Responding is the heart of what it means to worship. Responding to God, all that He is, all that He has done, is doing, and will do. How do you respond when you catch glimpses of God? Psalm 29:1-2 (NIV) states, “Ascribe to the LORD, O mighty ones, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness.” “Ascribe” means “to assign as a quality or characteristic.”

When you tell a spouse, a child, a parent, a loved one those beautiful words “I love you,” does it matter how it’s said? Sometimes my wife, Cindy, calls me at work when I’m busy. When she hears me say “I love you, Babe” in a monotone voice, she knows that’s code for “Can we talk about this when I get home? I’ve got work to do.” Then there’s the too rare occasion that I plan a nice date with my wife where we have a fun time and we share a good meal. If we are laughing and just enjoying each other’s company I might feel compelled to tell her “I love you” just as a reminder that I’d rather spend time alone with her more than any one else on the planet. It’s a no-brainer as to which one ascribes more worth to my lovely wife. The same is true with God, even more so. I might be able to fool my wife but not God. So be careful how you sing the words “I Love You, Lord,” “Lord of all Creation,” “Holy is the Lord,” “I Surrender All.” Make sure it’s authentic and from your heart.

In conclusion, I’d like to suggest two other practical ways you can prepare for worship.

1) Write your tithe check out before you come to church.

Tithing is another expression of worship. We respond to God by recognizing all of our blessings come from Him (including the gifts, skills, intellect, and training that got us the jobs that earn money for us) and then we give back 10% or more to the storehouse (church) to be used for God’s glory. Writing the check ahead of time and putting it in your offering envelope says, “I’ve thought about this and it’s important enough for me to prepare it ahead of time.” You can even get real cheesy (remember God’s into undignified worship) and call the family together and share a prayer together as you write the check.

2) Show up on time to church

Just as a reminder, Synaxis starts at 9:00am and Sanctuary starts at 11:00am. I have two boys that are almost ages 5 and 2 and I know how challenging it is to get them ready and get somewhere on time. Yet again, how would it look to God, with His knowledge of the difficulty of our hectic schedules, if we actually came early to church, maybe even helped out by ushering or greeting or by being there 15 minutes ahead of time to receive children in Sunday School? I think it would delight His heart because He would recognize that you were doing it for Him, again ascribing worth to Him. Maybe you don’t care for the music for one reason or another one Sunday. (It happens to me sometimes, too, even though I’m leading it – YIKES!). What if you sang with all your heart anyway? I think God again would be delighted that you won’t let anything get in the way of your praise of Him because He’s worthy of our praise regardless of any circumstance.

Anyway, thanks for letting me share some thoughts on worship with you. Let’s continue to journey together down the path that leads us to becoming a church where “praise awaits” our glorious God and King.