Fake, Phoney or the Real Thing??

     What is the right way to worship the Lord? How can we know? Is God looking for a certain style or volume for it to be the 'right' way to praise Him? Every church, every body of believers has a way to worship that they are comfortable with. In some cultures people show their praises to the Lord by dancing, others by clapping hands, some by lifting their hands towards heaven. In some places doing any of those forms of praise will get you frowned upon at best and kicked out at worst. Each place is unique in their form of worship.
     But what is God looking for? Does it bother Him if we worship in a certain way and not another? When we look at the Word and to see what God wants we will soon have our answers.
 

Psalm 47:1,4

Oh clap your hands all you peoples, shout unto God with the voice of triumph!

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth, make a loud noise and rejoice and sing praise....

Psalm 95:2

Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise unto Him with psalms.

"Praise him with the tambourine and dancing; praise him with strings and flutes!" Psalm 150:4

    So we see by these few Scriptures, and there are many more, that God is not afraid of noise in His house as long as it is for Him and to Him. But then we look at this next verse and maybe we will see what He doesn't want...

"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full." Matt.6:5

     I think this is the key to discovering what is acceptable praise and what is not. I have grown up all my life in church, Pentecostal churches, and I have seen real worship. Sometimes it's loud, sometimes it's not, sometimes it's with the dance, sometimes it's weeping, sometimes it's the raising of hands, sometimes it's singing but the one thing that all these styles of real worship have in common is that the praiser was shut in with God and communing with Him on a one to one basis. They weren't trying to incite people, to get them stirred up or to be seen. It was just them and God.

    I have seen the opposite of true praise and that is an ugly thing. And I know that God is not pleased with it either. God's Holy Spirit doesn't need our help in 'stirring people up'. He doesn't need us to cajole or do any of the other things that sometimes people will resort to when they don't feel the church is worshipping the way they ought to . I believe such praise is grieving to the heart of God. And we can't fool God. He knows if your worship is towards Him or just for you to be seen.

⁶ He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:
   “‘These people honor me with their lips,
   but their hearts are far from me.
⁷ They worship me in vain; Mark 7:6-7
       If you are praising to be seen God is not pleased and will not accept your praise because it doesn't come from a pure heart, a heart without an ulterior motive. If you are shut in with God and seeking only to please Him, your praise becomes an offering to Him that is sweet and acceptable in His sight.

"But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." (John 4:23-24)

     Let me encourage you to worship the Lord with all your heart, not to be seen by men and have their accolades heaped upon you. Let our praise be acceptable in His sight.
"Whoso offereth praise, glorifieth me." --Ps. 50:23