Right now at Charisma Church we are doing a series/challenge called Set Apart. We are taking three weeks and setting aside some things in our lives to spend more time with God. We are currently one week in, and it has been a powerful experience so far. There are many people at the church who are only listening to worship music during Set Apart. I had considered doing this, but it honestly wouldn’t have been too challenging for me ( I am listening to Israel Houghton right now). I don’t say that to be prideful. I really enjoy listening to worship music, but this hasn’t always been the case.
Shortly after I gave my life to Jesus, I bought a worship CD. I thought that every “good” Christian had to at least own one worship CD, so I bought Passion’s “Better is One Day” CD. I put it in my CD player and I couldn’t stand it. I forced myself to listen to it a few times to try to change my mind, but it didn’t help. I just didn’t like it. Nothing against Passion, but at that stage in my life, if it wasn’t punk music, I probably thought it was bad. Every once in a while I would put it back in and see if my opinion changed, but I would never make it past a few songs before I changed the CD. I completely wrote off worship music and decided it was not for me. I would find other ways to worship God.
It wasn’t until I joined a church that had lively worship that God began to change my mind about worship music. The attitude and atmosphere was different. They didn’t just sing the same verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus progression. People were pouring out their hearts to God. They were really seeking after Him. God began to show me that worship was a lot more than just the music. As I began to surrender myself to Him, I began to love worship. It was a very interesting experience because I was the kind of person who didn’t even want to clap at church. Now I was wanting to raise my hands, wanting to sing, wanting to bow before Him. I decided I would give worship CDs another try. I went out and bought some, and to my surprise I loved them. I didn’t have to be at church to be in God’s presence. It was awesome.
God has changed my heart so much in this area that there are now times I will go days at a time without listening to anything but worship music. It is not something I have to force myself to do, but I do very willingly. Whenever I’m having a rough day, I’ll just pop in some worship music and it will turn my day around. I used to have to cringe and try to bear through a worship CD, and now I can’t help but smile and sing along. Maybe you are like I used to be. I would encourage you to give it another shot and ask God to change your heart. Worship is such an integral part of our relationship with God. To help get you started, here are my top five favorite worship bands:
1. Planetshakers
2. David Crowder* Band
3. Hillsong United
4. Starfield
5. Worth Dying For
Honorable Mentions: Desperation Band, Israel Houghton, An Epic No Less, Chris Tomlin
until next time…
PS – in my next post I’ll dive more into why I believe worship is so integral. Check back soon!