As Christians, we have the privilege and the responsibility to worship God. I believe our primary purpose on Earth is to bring God glory, which can be done in many ways. It amazes me how many things we can do to bring glory to God. I don't think this says much about us in and of ourselves, but more about God as a great and almighty Creator who has created such diversity in the ways we can worship and praise Him. If, then, we are called to such a marvelous task to worship the God of all creation, we should be doing it to the best of our abilities. I believe worshipping God through song to the best of our ability requires us to be active in our times of worship.
I'm sure everyone has experienced a time of worship where they found themselves not being completely active. The service is about to start, and the worship band ascends the stage in the front of the sanctuary and prepares to lead the church in worship. The drums start beating, the guitars start strumming and the singers draw in a breath to start singing. It's a familiar song being played, one that is easy to memorize. As the congregation gets further and further into the song, your mind either goes blank, or your mind starts to wander, being drawn further and further away from the words you're singing, leading to passive worship. This happens very frequently during times of worship, and I know I've been guilty of doing this over the years.
Worship is meant to be an active task. God created us with a level of consciousness that enables us to express ourselves during times of worship. We should then be using that consciousness to its fullest extent during worship. God does not call us to absent-minded worship, but to worship that is lively. I think one of the best ways to do that is by focusing on the words we sing. We need to sing words that are full of meaning. Singing the same words 20 times over in one song has the potential to draw us into passive worship.
Singing worship and praise songs full of Biblical truths and theology can be very useful for learning more about God and more about the Bible. If we use the songs we sing in praise to learn more Scripture, then we're growing closer to Him by growing in our understanding. Singing the truth we find in the Bible feeds into our souls, because it's another way for us to be fed by Him. I believe it also causes a worshipper to ponder Biblical truths because they're being exposed to them in a different way than by reading or hearing the Bible. I think listening to and vocalizing Biblical truths put to music helps those who participate to remember them in a better way.
In order for us to worship God in the fullest sense of the word, we cannot give way to absent-mindedness during times of worship. The act of worshipping God was created to be lively. The privilege we have to worship God shouldn't be taken lightly. We should not settle for worship that isn't done to the fullest extent.
