With all of this talk about worship on the web, some of which has been productive, some has not, I’ve been really thinking hard about it. Yesterday, I was doing my devotions, reading My Utmost For My Highest. It was an incredible devotion that day, striking at the heart of why so many people’s worship is empty.

“Have you made the following decision about sin,” ask Oswald Chambers, “that it must be completely killed in you?”

Ouch. I really look at myself, and see that I have crucified many sins, but some still remain, waiting until I make the decision. And that morning I decided. I also realized that crucifying our sin is the first step in worship. We cannot go defiled into the presence of our King, yet we do on so many occasions. We haven’t “radically dealt with the issues of [our] will before God.” When we read Galatians, we need to understand that we must be “crucified with Christ” because we have completely surrendered to Christ. “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me…”

I always keep a copy of a Darlene Zschech quote hanging somewhere in my room to remind me of what worship truly is:

Worship is an act of obedience of the heart. It is a response that requires the very core of who you are, to love the Lord for who He is, not just for what He does. Worship is more than singing beautiful songs in church on a Sunday. It is more than instruments and music. As a true worshiper, your heart will long to worship him at all times, in all ways, and with all your life.

If the “core of who we are” is required, I want that core to be pure in the sight of God. Removing the uncleanness from our back is the very first step towards true worship.