Worship

Worship: Fleeing Self, Grasping God

by J.W. Phillips
05/23/25
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Worship: Fleeing Self, Grasping God

Worship, which literally means to declare worth, often begins with brokenness, a time when we feel little worth. At which time we come to see ourself as God sees us and get a revelation of our true need, that revelation shows our situation to be much worse than we thought.

Shattered by the extent of sin in our life, and desperate for our need for a Savior, we cry out to God.

The Bible says that God draws near to those of a broken spirit (Psalm 34:18). This doesn’t mean that God is a sentimental softie—a tear will melt him, a sigh will mellow him.

The Hebrew word for brokenness means to bruise, to beat to pieces. It speaks of a life crushed by guilt, a life that has no confidence in self or in anything else this world has to offer.

Whenever God sees a heart like that, he gets real close, real fast.

The reason many people have never had this experience is because they have never come to the end of themselves. They still regard themselves in a favorable way.

The convicted man cries out, “Woe is me!” (Romans 7:24). The proud man cries out, “Whoa, it’s me!”

When God does draw near, he not only saves us from the penalty of sin, but he also saves us from the power of sin. Failing to see this will cause brokenness to recur.

The preaching that assumes perpetual failure owing to our flawed humanity is not the gospel. The Bible says once we turn our eyes upon God, we become more and more like him (II Corinthians 3:18).

Many who came to the Lord in conversion—turning from self, renouncing pride, releasing a belief in God—forgot the very dynamics that saved them. The belief that saves is needed still!

Hebrews 11:6 declares, “He who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”

Not to have this belief would render both public and private worship useless, which is why Peter said, “Unto you therefore which believe he is precious” (I Peter 2:7 KJV). And it is also why Paul talked about “all joy and peace in believing (Romans 15:13),” and why Jesus said, “He who believes in Me ... out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38).

The one thing God wants is for us to believe him!

Indeed, the only way for Jesus to become precious to us—for joy to flood into our hearts and for the river of life to flow out—is to release a full-on belief that Jesus is who he said he is and that he will do what he said he would do.

A belief formidable enough to ignite a fervent spirit is always necessary for worship. And for precisely this reason most worship services are over before they begin.

The one factor that will sabotage worship at the outset is not lackluster singing, perfunctory prayers, the intrusion of announcements, and our routine ways of staging worship. More undermining still is this pattern of church members not believing God all during the prior week.

Once belief slackened, pride awakened.

On Monday, Tuesday, and every other day of the week, a practical atheism was at work. Whenever decisions had to be made by church members, they made them. And whenever resources had to be used, they used their own.

So, having lived most of the week with considerable self-reliance and almost no dependence on God, these people aren’t able to reverse course on Sunday and suddenly release this full-blown belief in God.

Oswald Chambers wrote, “We are taught to think like pagans six days a week and to reverse the order for one day.…”¹

A Puritan pastor once confessed, “… weekdays are worldly days and secular concerns reduce heavenly impressions.”² Worship will always be sabotaged whenever secular thinking becomes entrenched.

A.W. Tozer put a reverse spin on this problem when he said, “If you cannot worship the Lord in the midst of your responsibilities on Monday, it is not very likely you were worshiping on Sunday.”³

We must again learn the lesson: to flee self and grasp God.

Yes, learn it, only this time lock it in.

 Notes:

1. Oswald Chambers, Shade of His Hand, (Grand Rapids, Discovery House Publishers, 1991), p.123.
2. The Valley of Vision, edited by Arthur Bennett, (Edinburg, UK, The Banner of Truth Trust, 2011), p.207.
3. A.W. Tozer, Whatever Happened to Worship?, (Camp Hill, PA., Christian Publications, 1985), p.122.