When attending a church service recently, the music leader interrupted the song set to scold the congregation for not being animated enough in worship. This leader said that if we really wanted to give God our best we would be shouting and jumping just like the praise team.
This bothered me because I was being told that the only way to offer true worship to God was to do it in the same manner that the worship leader was doing it. What if I did not want to jump and would rather get on my knees in reverence to my Savior? Was this an inferior way to express my worship to God?
As I studied it more, I read in the Bible in Colossians 2:22 how it warns against “self-imposed worship” where people are being told when, where and how to offer praise to God. That has never been the way that God wants it. He does not want his people to be robots and copy the exact same things that everyone else is doing. No, he wants your worship to be as unique as you are.
Read John 4:21-24 and you will see that God does not care where you worship or what your title is, he just wants you to come to him sincerely and offer up true worship in a way that only you can. Your worship needs to come from the innermost part of your being.
So if you want to jump around and get all rowdy to show God how much you love him, do it. If you would rather just raise your hands, go for it. If you want to get on your knees, then by all means do it. Your worship to God needs to be personal. And don’t let anyone else tell you that you are not doing it right. For God delights in the pure and passionate worship of his children when they do it with all of their hearts.