Too many times have I sensed in Music Ministers/Worship Leaders/Lead Worshipers/Psalmists/Song Directors….the mindset of someone who is out of balance on the casual side of things. I’m not speaking of outward appearance, i.e. clothing, but of the heart. Does the scripture tell us that in Christ we now have an intimacy with God? Absolutely! However, that doesn’t mean that we don’t treat our Father without respect (forgive the double-negative).
In Spurgeon’s book “Lectures To My Students”, he has a worthy thought in this regard that, even though he is speaking primarily to public prayer, would apply to leading corporate singing:
Jacob wrestling
It is delightful to hear a man wrestle with God, and say, ‘I will not let thee go except thou bless me,’ but that must be said softly, and not in a hectoring spirit, as though we could command and exact blessings from the Lord of all. Remember, it is still a man wrestling, even though permitted to wrestle with the eternal I AM. Jacob halted on his thigh after that night’s holy conflict, to let him see that God is terrible, and that his prevailing power did not lie in himself. We are taught to say, ‘Our Father,’ but still it is, ‘Our Father who art in heaven.’
Familiarity there may be, but holy familiarity; boldness, but the boldness which springs from grace and its work of the Spirit; not the boldness of the rebel who carries a brazen front in the presence of his offended king, but the boldness of the child who fears because he loves, and loves because he fears. Never fall into a vainglorious style of impertinent address to God; he is not to be assailed as an antagonist, but entreated with as our Lord and God. Humble and lowly let us be in spirit….
Brother Music Minister, effort to not give off the signal of being presumptuous or brazen before our Father when you stand before His People.
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