the unquenchable worshipper: part III

At the end of Song of Songs comes a fantastic declaration of unquenchable worship:

Love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave.  It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame.  Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away (8:6-7).

Too often my worship is tamed by the complications and struggles of this world.  But I long to be in a place where my fire for God cannot be quenched or washed away, even by the mightiest rivers of opposition -- I long for a worship that can never be extinguished.

Fire extinguishers work by removing one of the three things needed to keep a fire ablaze: heat, oxygen and fuel.  So, in other words, there are three main ways to put a fire out: cool the burning material with water (or some other such substance), cut off the oxygen or cut off the supply of fuel.

And I think there’s a parallel here with our hearts of worship.  We long to be a people whose hearts burn for God; but if we’re not careful, there are ways we can lose something of that fire.

Just as water can put a fire out, so too the pressures and the trials of this life can dampen our hearts of worship.  It’s so easy in a time of hardship to cool off a bit and lose that sense of wonder and trust.  We ask why God would let such things happen to us and we wind down our worship, kidding ourselves that we’ll start up again when things are better.  Or maybe we don’t feel like worshipping anymore, so we don’t.  I’ve seen many worshippers thrown off course by difficult situations.  But I’ve also seen people who have endured even more difficult situations and emerged with their hearts of worship burning as strongly as ever, if not stronger.

There is a kind of worshipper who “always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” (1 Cor. 13:7), and who gets through the storms of life with a heart still blazing.  Sometimes it comes down to a simple choice.  We may be hard-pressed on every side, weary and not able to sense God.  But then a choice faces us -- to fix our eyes on the circumstances or to cling to God and choose to worship Him, even when it hurts.  The heart of God loves the offerings of a persevering worshipper.  Though overwhelmed by many troubles, they are even more overwhelmed by the beauty of God.

[taken from The Unquenchable Worshipper: Coming Back to the Hearth of Worship, Matt Redman, 22-24.]