Well, I’ve decided to go ahead and offend 90% of the people who read this blog…just kidding…I hope. In all seriousness, this is a very important topic because it has to do with our worship of the One True God—what topic could be more important than that? I want to talk about the role that emotion should (or shouldn’t) play in our worship.
Disclaimer: worship involves much more than just singing to the Lord. Paul says, “whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Colossians 3:17). For the purposes of this post, however, I will primarily be referring to worship through song. So, when I use the word “worship,” that’s the context.
Now that we’ve established that, back to our topic at hand. If you were to attend ten different church worship services over the course of ten Sundays, you might just see ten very different congregations who express themselves very differently in worship. This, in my opinion, is a good thing because we are all uniquely designed by God with different personalities and ways that we respond in worship. Even still, I think some of us feel guilty when we see a Christian worshipping with hands raised and tears falling down their face because we very rarely have that kind of response. It makes us wonder if we love Jesus as much as they do.
But does more emotion = more worship? Well, let’s make a couple of important points to figure this out:
God gave us emotions.
We have been created in the image of God, and I believe a part of that is that we are emotional beings. This means, among other things, that emotions are not inherently evil. For example, even about anger, the Bible says, “be angry and do not sin” (Ephesians 4:26). We normally view anger as always a bad thing, and while it certainly often leads to sin, anger in and of itself is not always sin. As a matter of fact, God even portrays Himself as having emotions such as joy, grief, anger, jealousy, love, and others. And while God is immutable and is not swayed or changed by His emotions, this tells us that emotions in and of themselves are given to us by God and serve a purpose.
We can’t always trust our emotions.
All that being said, we are sinful human beings. Even those of us who have been saved by Jesus Christ still wrestle with the flesh and its sinful desires. Because of that, our hearts are deceitfully wicked (Jeremiah 17:9), and we must always check our emotions against the Truth (more on that later). One pastor said it this way: “Your feelings are real, but they aren’t always true.” Many people, for example, can seemingly be worshipping God with great emotion, but it’s not God they are moved by. Rather, the lighting, music, and adrenaline have manipulated in them an emotional response much like what can happen at a secular music concert. On the other hand, someone can not “feel” like worshipping God, and yet choose to worship anyway in spirit and truth, and the Lord would accept that as pure and good.
Different truths call for different emotions.
Some people have simply trained themselves to respond to worship music in certain ways. So they throw their hands up and weep no matter the song being sung. But that response may not be the most appropriate when we are singing songs of joy, for example. We need to be sure that we are not just seeking to elicit some kind of emotion in ourselves every time the music begins on Sunday. Rather, let us have appropriate emotions based on the truths we are singing.
Outward expressions don’t always tell the whole story.
My family will tell you that I am not always the most outwardly expressive person. So, while I’m not completely stoic during worship, I’m not necessarily going to be the most expressive person in the room. That’s true in my everyday life as well. I can be feeling a particular emotion very deeply and yet not express that outwardly to the degree I feel it inwardly. Other people are naturally very expressive, and as soon as their favorite worship song begins, they are a puddle of tears. Let’s not judge one another or ourselves on externals. After all, “God looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).
Truth should be in charge of our emotions.
Not the other way around. We should meditate on the truths we sing, think deeply about them, and pray that they impact our mind and heart the way they are supposed to. The Psalms are full of phrases like “My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God” (Psalm 84:2). When we truly understand the truth about who God is and what He has done for us, I do believe that will elicit some kind of emotional response. Maybe not every single time in the exact same way, but the one who has no response to the truth of the Gospel may not truly understand the Gospel. However, it would be a mistake to begin by saying, “I need more emotion in my worship.” Rather, we should say, “I need more of God’s truth to be implanted in my heart so that I may respond in worship to Him.”
Conclusion
W.S. Plumer wrote, “We cannot have too much religious affection if it is pure and holy.” I agree with him. While I have said we should check our emotions against truth and not always trust them, when our emotions and affections are driven by the Gospel and coming from a pure and holy heart, we simply cannot be too expressive about what the Lord has done for us. So, throw up your hands, fall to your knees (you’ll do that one day for sure), weep with joy or mourning over your sin, jump for joy, or stand with your arms at your side and sing loudly the praises of your God who reigns. Just make sure you do it all from a heart that is seeking to love Him with all your mind, soul, heart, and strength. And beg Him for mercy when you fall short and ask Him to give you a clean heart that desires more and more to worship Him.