by Yolande Vincent
There is a beautiful worship song by Bellarive, called “Tendons”.
My favourite lyric go as follows:
Rip these tendons, they hinder my reach towards You…
I am no medical expert, but that sounds painful. Dr Google says that a tendon is a fibrous connective tissue that attaches muscle to bone. Tendons may also attach muscles to structures such as the eyeball. A tendon serves to move the bone or structure.
In 2 Samuel 6, there is this account of King David when he famously danced before the Lord when they carried the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David. His first wifey, Michal (Saul’s daughter), seeing him through a window, despised him in her heart. She could have misunderstood his motives and the significance of the event. David was pouring out his heart through worship in the presence of the Lord.
2 Sameul 6:20-23 CSB: “When David returned home to bless his household, Saul’s daughter Michal came out to meet him. “How the king of Israel honoured himself today!” she said. “He exposed himself today in the sight of the slave girls of his subjects like a vulgar person would expose himself.”
David replied to Michal, “It was before the Lord who chose me over your father and his whole family to appoint me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel. I will dance before the Lord, and I will dishonour myself and humble myself even more. However, by the slave girls you spoke about, I will be honoured.” And Saul’s daughter Michal had no child to the day of her death.”
Dear friend, we were absolutely made to worship. Not just here on earth, but in Heaven.
Revelation 7:9-10 CSB says: “After this I looked, and there was a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, which no one could number, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice:
Salvation belongs to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
When we think back to the Israelites in the desert, after they have been saved from Egypt, Moses on the mountain with God getting the 10 Commandments, they “panicked” and asked Aaron for gods. Aaron does not argue or correct them, he just says take off your gold.
Exodus 32:4 CSB says: “He took the gold from them, fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it into an image of a calf.
Then they said, “Israel, these are your gods, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!”
They then continue sacrificing to this calf and hold a festival.
Now, when I look back in my life, I have never felt the desire to bow down to a golden calf or any other statue for that matter. There has not exactly been that longing to make gods out of something. But I can tell you, that since I have been exposed to Worship and Church and the Holy Spirit, I cannot help but worship my King Jesus. I could be easier for me because I love music and dancing, but I prefer to think that the Lord has captured my heart and for that reason I would become more undignified than this.
If we were indeed made to worship, as humans and anthropologically speaking, even different religions taking this need profoundly seriously, as believers we should be even more convinced of this fact and deed. As a nation filled with sports supporters, we have no problem cheering or shouting or singing the anthem. We have no problem straining our tendons in jumping, and shouts of joy or disappointment, even to the point of losing our voices from all the cheering.
What prevents us then from entering worship wholeheartedly and undignified?
What are the hindrances, the tendons, we might be struggling with?
~ Who we are in public, starts in private.
If we do not spend any private time in the week in worship and praising God, we cannot step into it on a Sunday. As important as gathering on Sundays are, there is much more to our relationship with the Lord, than just what happens on a Sunday.
~ Pride
We might be entertaining thoughts that worship is old school or it is embarrassing or beneath us. These thoughts are rooted in pride. Like I mentioned earlier from Revelation, we will be worshipping in Heaven, so as believers we will not be getting away from it.
~ Shame
We might be entertaining thoughts that we are not good enough, we are a mess, our life is a mess. We might be struggling with imposter syndrome, who are we to worship this Holy God. Dear friend, King David with all his mistakes, was still known to be a man after God’s heart. He pursued God no matter what. Let us not allow the lies of shame to hold us back from fully pursuing God.
~ Lies
If Jesus loves us, and the Devil hates us, then obviously the enemy does not want us to worship, let alone be undignified in doing it. The enemy will keep us trapped in believing all kinds of lies. Dear friend, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So, if you are experiencing anything less than freedom in worship, be sure that these lies are operating. We get to choose not to believe them.
Rip these tendons, they hinder my reach towards You.
My prayer for us today, is that the Lord will rip, remove, and restore anything that is hindering us from wholeheartedly worshipping Him.
The beauty of our walk with Jesus, is that we can always go deeper with Him. Let us take the first step, hand in hand with the Holy Spirit, into the next level of abandon and worship.