The Attitude of Worship

Oh no- the “A” word! (Insert dramatic music here)

Has anyone ever told you “you have an attitude problem”? I know I have. It seems, at every major junction of my life, as a child, as a teen, as a wife, as a friend, as an employee, as a parishioner, I have been told in one way or another that I have had a bad attitude. Sometimes rather vocally and publically, because I didn’t get the subtle hints I was a jerk from the beginning.

I have been thinking about this and this is JUST the opinion of Dayna, not the Church of Dayna… for me I think it has come down to one thing; I think higher of myself than I ought to. When I am honest with myself, and that is the person I have lied to the most in the past, I have this exaggerated opinion of myself.

Do not get me wrong here! I know God made me with talent, and ability, and intelligence. This is not an issue of esteem. This is an issue of pride.

Romans 12:2-3 Amplified Bible (AMP) 2 Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you]. 3 For by the grace (unmerited favor of God) given to me I warn everyone among you not to estimate and think of himself more highly than he ought [not to have an exaggerated opinion of his own importance], but to rate his ability with sober judgment, each according to the degree of faith apportioned by God to him.

Proverbs 16:18 says “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”  

Pride in the original Hebrew means arrogance, swelling, pomp, and it can mean to rise up, to be lifted up, to exalt.

When we raise ourselves up, when we are the ones with the haughty spirit, we paint God into a corner. We become so stiff necked, He has no other choice but to bring us low and remove us from His position in our lives. He has to de-throne us, because we climbed into Daddy’s chair, and that is not where we are supposed to be.  

Crashing to the earth in one huge very public wreck because we were stiff-necked (stubborn in our pride) is not comfortable, and the recovery time from that kind of fall can take years to get past. The root of the word destruction in Hebrew is “shabar” which means to be maimed or crippled. Do we want years of spiritual rehab? For some of us, myself included, it is a very painful, raw, and often lengthy process. One we are destined to repeat if we don’t learn to be humble. (The children of Israel wondered the desert for 40 years…I don’t want to circle the same mountain anymore!)

That is why we must humble ourselves before the Lord.

Humility is where it is at!

Humble in the original Hebrew is this: to become low, to sink, (Be still and know!) to rest into, and to abase.  Matthew 5:3 (TM) "You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.” John the Baptist realized this and we should have the same attitude every day in our walk with God: “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30)

So what does this have to do with worship? Well, let’s bring this home.

Psalms 95:6 “O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.”

This is not just a physical kneeling, not just a bending of our bodies. IT IS AN ATTITUDE. We put ourselves in a lower position in our esteem (we value less or take less pride in ourselves) because we actively lift and exalt God in our lives and recognize WHO HE IS!

So in your song service, in your private worship time, in your prayer time, in that moment in the grocery store when you get grief from the cashier and all you want to do is remind her who you are (the customer is NOT always right) keep the attitude of humility. He will give you the grace to do so. He will reward you.

Proverbs 29:23 says “A man's pride shall bring him low: but honor shall uphold the humble in spirit.”

Honor in the Hebrew here is ‘kabowd’ and it means glory, abundance, riches, reputation, reverence, respect. If we want these things, we must be humble.

This is a hard thing for me to write about. I have battled, and will continue to battle pride throughout my life, but one thing I know: that if I did not say these things now, I would not be worthy of writing another word. I would not have the right to teach if I could not take correction from the Holy Spirit myself. I am not perfect, no one but Jesus is, but I strive to be teachable, and I sit at THE MASTER’s feet.

Psalms 99:5 “Exalt ye the Lord our God, and worship at His footstool; for He is holy.”

Be blessed and Be a blessing and remember that bow is a verb.