More Than Anything Else
“When you come looking for me, you’ll find me.
“Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.” God’s Decree. – Jeremiah 29:13 (The Message)
What a great reminder for all of us, myself included. What a Call To Worship. A call to set our hearts and minds with a clear focus on seeking and pursuing God. That is the target, the goal and the prize.
I’ve been leading worship for a long time. Having spent more than 25 years working in the church I’ve heard lots of, well, let’s just say, feedback (and I’m not talking about from the audio system). The worship leader gets lots of affirmation and I have gotten more than I deserve. We also get lots of other observations, some deserved and some not.
I’ve been asked both, why I still use special music and why I don’t use more specials. I’ve heard feedback about not singing hymns and about singing too many hymns. I’ve heard that the sound is too loud and the sound is not loud enough. A lady once told me that when I planned a worship set with 3 songs it moved her deeply but when we did 4 songs, she didn’t get anything out of it at all. (an absolutely true story)
You get the point. Lots of feedback. And this only scratches the surface.
With most of these I was left thinking, “But, did you find God? Did you come to worship Him or to fill out a personal checklist? Did you come to seek Him?”
I know that everyone has preferences…favorite songs and things that really move their hearts. I totally get that. But I keep going back to those words from the book of Jeremiah,“Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.”
More than anything else.
If you worship in a local church this weekend, and believe me, I pray that you do, how are you preparing your heart for that experience? What is the goal? I hope you enter your place of worship with an attitude of seeking God over seeking personal preferences. He promises that if we come looking for HIM, we will find HIM.
Know this: as a worship leader this is a challenge for me as well because I have my own preferences. It comes back to focus. Am I focused on HIM or am I focused on myself? The truth is, we all want what we want and our act of worship is laying down our desires to pursue HIS desires for our lives.
How are you preparing your heart to worship God?
Worship Leader Probs 
In my opinion last weekend the music was awesome. In thinking why I felt that way, I’d say
The presentation was new.
We are of course blessed with many good singers. However, I guess, being human (🙄) while I enjoy a solo, guess I don’t feel part of the service as much as, say when the ‘line-up’ of singers came out. It was more like God’s people I was listening to rather than someone representing me. You had my attention.
Also, we knew we’d be praising God with every song. The Holy Spirit was, dare I say ‘highlighted’
By the end of the service, I personally felt we all
were joyful in the Lord.
Good word, Brian
Thanks brother. You are such an encouragement to me, Randy. Grateful for you!