“Take delight in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

Psalm 37:4

As we worship, we receive. This can be very difficult for us to understand. Many people feel guilty about it. We have been taught so often that the Christian life is about sacrifice, surrender, unselfishness and other things that sound painful and difficult. So much so that any sense we should receive from God -  even that we could ENJOY God - sounds wrong to us because ‘sacrifice’ and ‘surrender’ are noble pursuits whilst to ‘enjoy’ and to ‘receive’ is selfish and indulgent. So we forego the delight, enjoyment and pleasure of God because we feel that is what we should do.

This is something that happens to me all the time:

Have you ever come to worship God and there with all your might you are trying to concentrate on God… you know… telling Him he’s worthy and amazing and powerful and loads of other stuff He already knows about Himself… and instead of all that ‘truth’ you end up thinking about your life or your family or your work or the things God has called you to do…. then you feel guilty and you try even harder to think about God and not your family or your work…?

Or how about this… have you ever been in a time of worship… trying really hard to concentrate on God but what is happening is an unexpected moment of inner healing…  some of the pain that you carry is being dealt with in a moment of worship…?

Or have you ever tried to worship and you just keep getting these ideas… for businesses or for songs or art or creative solutions to problems…? Or have you ever tried to worship Him… give Him your words of praise but you can’t because all you can hear is His words of love for you…?

Tozer says this about worship:

“The continuous and unembarrassed interchange of love and thought between God and the soul of the redeemed man is the throbbing heart of New Testament worship.”

An exchange of love and thought occurs in worship. Knowing and being known. We realise who we are in the middle of worship because we realise whose we are in the middle of worship

This is what I call “The Ontological Circle”. Now I appreciate ‘ontological’ is a big theological word - and you don’t expect that from me - but is the right word to use:

Ontological means - ‘relating to the essence or the nature of being’

So what I have called ‘The Ontological Circle’ means this:

The more we understand, in the middle of worship, who we are; what we are made for; what our destiny is - we understand more about who He is and His great love for us.

And the more we understand and experience who He is; His nature; His faithfulness; His goodness; His furious longing for us - we understand more about who we are and what we are made for.

Probably my favourite story of worship in the Bible is that of Jesus being anointed with perfume. It appears in all four of the Gospels .

Jesus is in the home of a religious leader to have dinner when unannounced and uninvited enters a sinful woman - a prostitute, a whore, a slut. Full of love and gratitude she falls at Jesus’ feet weeping - her tears dripping on to his feet. She wipes the tears with her hair and kisses his feet. This was unacceptable in every way - she was a prostitute, he was a rabbi. But she’s not finished; she pours out an entire jar of expensive perfume on his feet.

Immediately the Pharisee begins to accuse her and condemn her and criticise her, saying this act of worship was a waste - it could have been given to the poor. But then instantly Jesus replies and he defends her saying: “I came here and you gave me nothing but this woman knows what is important - she has not stopped kissing me since she arrived. She has spent her perfume on me, she has wasted it on me.” Then he speaks to her - affirming her and forgiving her sins.

An interchange of love. 

Because she has realised who Jesus is she arrives abandoned in worship and there, in that place, receives affirmation, acceptance and love.

If your worship is real - if your worship is true - you will receive. I guarantee it.

“He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you but will rejoice over you with singing” - Zephaniah 3:17