Numb to the Feeling
When Ashlyn Blocker was a little girl, her parents took her to the doctor to look at her eye. They put eye drops in her eye and discovered that she had an abrasion across her cornea. That’s when the doctors and nurses let out an audible gasp. She was only 5 years old yet she wasn’t phased by the pain. After running a series of test they discovered the shocking news.
Ashlyn Blocker is one of only a few people in the world to suffer from CIPA. Congenital Insensitivity to Pain with Anhidrosis. A rare genetic disorder that makes her unable to feel pain.
Can you imagine living in a world where you were unable to feel anything? Or even worse, living in a world where your child was unable to feel anything?
It wasn’t uncommon for Ashlyn to burn her hand because she didn’t know what she was touching was hot. Or for her to bite through her tongue while eating because she didn’t feel the pain and know to stop. She was numb to the feeling.
What happens when we become numb to feeling?
Here’s a question for you: How many of us have become numb to what God has done for us through Jesus? What happens when we stop feeling the emotion of the cross?
Sometimes that might happen because there are roadblocks to our worship. Things that stand in the way of our worship. And there are a lot of things that can come between us and our worship. Sometimes that happens because we’ve become numb to the story. We’ve lost our sensitivity to the cross.
The Overflow
In Colossians 3.16-17, Paul says this to a group of Jesus followers living in the ancient city of Colosse…
“Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, FILL your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts.
This is what happens when you FILL your life with the MESSAGE about CHRIST!
You sing! You worship! This is the response. This is the OVERFLOW!
When you fill your heart and your life with the message about Christ… when you are constantly filling your life with the truth of what God has done for you in and through Christ… when you remember that God so LOVED the world that He GAVE His one and only SON so that you could LIVE… this is what happens, you OVERFLOW with worship.
You can’t contain it. You can’t explain it. But you can FEEL it. And you can’t help but EXPRESS it!
Why? Because… We were created to respond to God. That RESPONSE is our WORSHIP. And our worship should express emotion because the CROSS IS EMOTIONAL. What God has done for us in and through Jesus is emotional. It should fill our hearts and stir our souls to worship!
All of this flows from a THANKFUL heart! A heart that is OVERFLOWING with gratitude to God for Jesus!
But your worship doesn’t end there. It might begin there, but it doesn’t end there. Because when that message fills your heart, here’s what happens…
And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.”
In other words, everything you do becomes an act of worship. Everything you do gives God glory and honor and praise.
Normal Praise
What about you? What keeps you from expressing your worship to God?
Several months ago my youngest daughter brought one of her Barbie dolls to church. When we stood up to sing, she stood to sing with us like she always does. Watching my kids worship is one of my favorite parts of every Sunday. But on this day I looked down and I noticed something different. My daughter had taken the arms of her Barbie and she had raised both of her arms up in worship.
I’ve never taught my kids a lesson about the postures of worship. They haven’t heard me talk much about how we should worship. Somehow she just knew… this is what we do when we worship. We lift our hands.
I wonder if somehow we’ve come to believe that it’s normal to gather to sing songs of worship, to hear the message of Christ, and keep our arms folded or our hands in our pockets. I wonder if somehow we’ve come to believe that this is normal, to walk into a room of believers for worship, have our worship leaders lead us in worship, all while we sit back and make judgments about the songs we’re singing and if we’re standing way too long?
If so, I’d say two things.
First, we’ve got to tear down the roadblocks. We’ve got to find a cure for the CIPA of our heart. We need to come to terms with who we are, what we’ve done, and just who God is and ALL that He has done for us!
Second, this is NOT NORMAL. Worship that is NORMAL is filled with expression, celebration, and an overflow of praise.
Here’s why this is SO IMPORTANT. Because… The way we worship reflects the One we worship.
If this is true, then I have to ask you this question, What does the way you worship say about the One you worship?
What needs to change about your worship?
Is your worship more about you or more about God?
If it’s more about you, then fine, worship how you want.
BUT, if it’s more about God, then maybe you need to think about what your worship communicates to the God you worship. And maybe just maybe, something needs to change.
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