Weapon Against Anxiety #5: Worshipping Together
Family Devotion
Have you ever been in a church service or somewhere else, singing praise to God with fellow Christians, and felt overwhelmed with joy? That’s the joy of the Holy Spirit overflowing in us. It’s what happens when we worship God. Singing is one of many ways to worship God – in fact, Romans 12:1 tells us that everything we do in this life should be worship to God. So we can worship when we wash dishes, we can worship when we walk the dog, and we can worship when we are in conflict with one another (that’s a topic for another day…). More than that, we can sing the most inspiring Christian song and not be worshipping. See, true worship comes from the attitudes of our hearts, from a desire to honor God more than anything else.
Our activity today will focus on using music to worship, not because we sometimes use those words as synonyms, but because I think music teaches us to worship in ways scrubbing a toilet doesn’t. Both the lyrics and the composition of a well-written song are mathematical and creative at the same time, and because of that, examining and appreciating a good song is somewhat like examining an aspect of creation – a flower for example. You can see math in the number and shape of the petals and leaves and creativity in the variety of shapes, sizes and colors. All of this should cause us to pause and give thanks to our awesome Creator. I recognize that worshipping together as a church is challenging right now, but we can, and should worship together as a family.
Family Activity
Choose one of your family’s favorite Christian songs. It could be hymn, a song by Lecrae, or something in between, but it does need to have Christian lyrics for our purposes today. Something upbeat will be best.
Find a recording and the lyrics to that song. If someone in your family feels confident to play the song on a guitar or piano, that will work too.
First, read over the lyrics out loud and talk about what they mean. If you aren’t sure, see if you can find out with a quick Google search.
Now, listen to the song together. Listen to the rhythm of the lyrics and music together, listen to the chords and the unique vocalization. Turn the song into a prayer, letting the words be a conversation between you and God.
Listen to the song one more time, but this time, turn the volume up and sing and dance together!
Notice how you feel when the song is done. Do you feel that joy? Keep singing and dancing if you can.
Want to go deeper?
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