One of my favorite scriptures is 2 Samuel 6:20-21:
20: Then David returned to bless his household. And Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, How glorious was the king of Israel to day, who uncovered himself to day in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovereth himself!
21: And David said unto Michal, It was before the Lord, which chose me before thy father, and before all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord, over Israel: therefore will I play before the Lord.
This came to mind the other day sitting in Church. It was during praise and worship and the praise team was trying to get people to actively participate in praise and worship. At my church, this is not usually a problem, however, while people participate, you can still see that people hold back....
Why is that? Why is it so hard to completely lose ourselves in praise and worship? Why do we look around the Church to see what others are doing and/or wearing? Why is it so hard to just spend that time with God, especially when that is what we are supposed to be doing anyway... For most of us, the hardest thing is to lose ourselves and to lose control... Maybe that's it. Maybe we are not loosing ourselves in praise and worship because we cannot give up control. Is it that to us image is everything? Is it that we put on this persona that we don't want people to deviate from when they think of us? Maybe it IS the idea that people might think we are foolish as to why we cannot lose ourselves in praise and worship?
I believe that we should take a page out of David's book. Yes, he praised so hard that he did dance himself out of his clothes. While I am not saying that you dance yourself out of your clothes, I am saying that you when questioned and ridiculed about why you praise and worship with the intensity that you do, that you do what David did he told his wife flat out that because of all of the things God has done for me, I will praise him. This is where we should be. We should get to a point where it does not matter who sees us, but what matters is what God has done for us. Praise and Worship is not for us, it is for God. It is our way of showing God that we recognize where our strength comes from. We should be willing to let go of ourselves and praise God with everything... I mean, when he moves for us, he uses everything in his disposal so why can't we praise him with the same abandonment as David... Or is image everything?
