I never understood exactly why singing in church made my soul weep with pure joy. Until my favorite pastor, Buddy Owens, recently spoke about Worship. He gave the down low on what worship is and why we do it. His simple, yet eloquent teaching gave me a major "aha" moment.
What he said (I'm paraphrasing - I lost my notes!) is that the purpose of worship is to align yourself with God.
I understood that to be the purpose of prayer, but it was news to me that singing worhip songs was for the same benefit. I thought worship was for His benefit, not ours. But, that's not really so. You see, by glorifying God, you are being brought into His spiritual current, in a sense. I think of Finding Nemo, when the sea turtles brave their fears to jump into the current of the big EAC (dude). :)
What I have realized is this: The reason my soul feels awakened during worship music, is that for a rare moment in my busy life, my soul is aligned with God. Where it's supposed to be!
Since I want that feeling more often, I downloaded some worship songs to listen to daily. It was a bit of a task, since i knew nothing about worship music. Unless you count Country music, which is fairly spiritual in my book. Here's my playlist... hope you like it.
Worship Playlist:
Beautiful - Bethany Dillon
Beautiful One - Jeremy Camp
Blessed be Your Name - Tree63
Everlasting God - Lincoln Brewster
Great Are You Lord - Phillips, Craig & Dean
Hallelujah (Imagination) - Bethany Dillon
Here I Am To Worship - Chris Tomlin
How Great is Our God - Bethany Dillon
In Christ Alone - Bethany Dillon
Mighty to Save - Hillsong
Open The Eyes of My Heart - Phillips, Craig & Dillon
Sing Over Me - Bethany Dillon
The Words I would Say - Sidewalk Prophets
What Faith Can Do - Kutless
When You Love Someone - Bethany Dillon
You Never Let Go - Matt Redman
P.S. This post was inspired by this blog post by Graceful.
P.P.S. Bird, Muffin, Horse to come later in the week. I was inspired so changed my plan.
P.P.P.S. I think I am going to change my blog name to Summer On The Bright Side, because I found out there was another bright side blog... oops.
Off to study!
someone is a Bethany Dillon Fan ;)
ReplyDeleteSome of my faves are on your list. And I just LOVE anything by Third Day and Jeremy Camp.
ReplyDeleteI am with you 100% on this post... all the way down to the Nemo current comment!!! ;) Worship almost aligns me with God more than prayer... maybe? It brings me into sweeter fellowship with Him! Amen!
ReplyDeleteJust Jenn~
I love this post.. Worship and singing to glorify Him definitely places my focus on Jesus and no longer on my circumstances or on myself. Like you said, It aligns myself with Him, His plans, His thoughts, His ways, His purpose... love it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing Summer.
Thanks so much for this playlist, Summer -- you did all the work for me! And thanks for the plug to Graceful, too -- sorry it's taken me a few days to get back over here...I had good intentions...but life got in the way!
ReplyDeleteYay! Found the post with your playlist. Okay, I only have 3 of yours on my playlist as well, which means I have a lot more cool music to discover! Thanks for the heads up :) Mighty To Save is just WOW! I love Hosanna from Hillsong as well; look it up on You Tube. Seriously sends chills down my spine!
ReplyDeletep.s. summer on the bright side is a great name...I follow the Bright Side Project; is that the blog you were referring to?
ReplyDelete