Away with the noise of your songs! (Amos 5:23)
People have told me that I am the person they want to be sitting next to during a worship set. On one hand that fills me with such a sense of humility. God gave me my voice in the first place so I want to give him my very best back. I want to express how grateful I am for the words I can sing and the gift he has given me. On the other hand, however, it can fill me with intense pride. It can cause me to show off because I know people are listening. I distinctly remember one of these moments happening to me during an intense service. I remember hearing God say, “Be quiet and listen.”
What Amos shared here is along that same line. If our hearts are not in the right place, this beautiful music turns into nothing but noise. We can hit all the right notes, do everything right, and have the people around us tell us how beautiful we sound. But if we aren’t in that moment to worship God, it’s nothing.
I learned that the hard way the night I was told to be quiet and listen. God desires my worship, not my voice. So whether you are the best musician, or not quite, God desires your worship. Give it genuinely.
Engage in genuine worship with God.
Callie Kemmerer is a wife, fur mama, alumni of Kingswood University, and lover of Jesus who is striving after God’s heart and will each day.
© 2020 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission.
Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
