“At the heart of worship is a heart for God”

While I was visiting an individual the other day, we got around to the topic of worship. The individual shared with me something that is attributed to the theologian Soren Kierkegaard. Kierkegaard said something to the effect that we tend to think of church as some kind of theater: we sit in the audience, attentively watching the actors on stage. If sufficiently entertained, we show our gratitude with applause. Church, though, should be the opposite of theater. God is the audience for our worship.”
It is true, isn’t it, that what matters most in worship takes place in the hearts of the congregation – not “on stage.” The question that we should ask ourselves after worship is not “What did I get out of it?” The real question is “Was God please with what I offered?”
In the Old Testament animal sacrifice served as a way to indicate that God is the center of Worship. Yet God didn’t need the animals, they were already his. What God desires is the sacrifice of the heart, an internal attitude of elevating God to God’s worthy place (the word worship really comes from an old word which means “worthy”.)
Ultimately, the goal of our worship is nothing more than to meet God and to please God with the offering of ourselves in fellowship, song and praise.