Maybe.

Maybe not.

It all depends on the heart.

When you’re lifting your hands and swaying your body to the tune of your favorite chorus, what are you thinking about? On whom are you focused?

Are you caught up in the sound? The rhythm? The flow of words? Or are you truly engaged in genuine worship?

Old Versus New
I love the new praise choruses that have surfaced in the past few years, but I still yearn for a good ol’ hymn now and then. There’s something about those old hymns from the past that really solidifies our theology. They humble us. They force us to focus on God as the Almighty—not simply on how we feel as we sing.

Take a peek at a favorite chorus of mine:

I want to know You; I want to hear Your voice
I want to know You more.
I want to touch You; I want to see Your face
I want to know You more.

Read the words again. Are we really singing about the Lord of Lords . . . or about our latest crush? We’ve almost romanticized God in this chorus, haven’t we? And by doing so, it’s easy to get caught up in the emotion of sway, the flow of music and the feeling of praise instead of genuine worship.

Now take a peek at one of my favorite hymns:

Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee;
How great Thou art! How great Thou art!

There’s no question to whom we’re singing, is there? Notice the emphasis in my favorite chorus. It’s on what I want, while the focus on my favorite hymn is all on God. As I sing “How Great Thou Art,” I’m absolutely zeroed in on God’s greatness, God’s power and God himself. My chorus simply focuses the attention on what I want to get out of my relationship with God.

Does that make the chorus wrong?

No.

It’s just something to think about.

God wants our worship to be genuine. He wants all praise directed solely to Him. He’s the One on the throne, not us. It’s not about how we feel or what we want out of worship; rather, it’s all about God and honoring Him.

But What I Want Is Important
When I worship, I really desire to draw closer to God, you may be thinking. Great! Because that’s what God wants you to want! But hear me out, OK?

Here’s another favorite chorus I love to sing:

Draw me close to You; Never let me go.
I lay it all down again; To hear You say that I’m Your friend.
You are my desire; No one else will do.
’Cause nothing else could take Your place
To feel the warmth of Your embrace.

Again, where’s the focus? Draw me close. I want to hear you say that I’m your friend. You are my desire.

Though I love this song, it feels as though I’m singing about a romance with someone instead of truly worshiping the Creator of the universe. It almost reduces God to someone in class to whom I’m slipping a note.

Do you know this old hymn?

Great is thy faithfulness, O God my father.
There is no shadow of turning with thee.
Thou changest not, thy compassions, they fail not,
As thou hast been, thou forever will be.
Great is thy faithfulness; Great is thy faithfulness.
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed thy hand hath provided.
Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me.

There’s no doubt that when singing this song, I’m focused on God—His greatness, His faithfulness, His provision. It’s not romanced; it’s worship. It forces my mind into who GOD is! It forces me to see Him, not as my best buddy, but as my Savior, my King, my GOD!

Familiarity
But God IS my best friend, you may be thinking. He’s mine, too. And He wants to be our best friend. But if He’s only our friend, we’re missing out on all He wants to be. He doesn’t want to settle simply for friendship. Think about it: We don’t really need another buddy; we need a Savior!

Again, though God wants to be our friend, He also desires genuine worship from us, and that means adoring His position and humbling ourselves before Him.

Jesus was very close to His 12 disciples. And out of those 12, He was even closer to three: Peter, James and John. And of those three, He was closest to one: John.

John was the one who leaned on Christ’s bosom at the Last Supper. There was certainly a familiarity there; a comfort level. Yet though they were friends, John never lost His sense of adoration, respect and worship for Christ.

John wrote the last book of the Bible—Revelation. And in the first chapter he talks about seeing the glorified Christ in heaven. Though this is the same Jesus, it’s a glorified aspect of Jesus.

The Jesus of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) entered the world as a lamb being willingly led to slaughter. But the glorified Jesus of Revelation enters the scene as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. He’s calling all the shots; He’s in control.

John has the privilege of actually seeing the glorified Christ. And when he does, notice what happens. “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead” (Revelation 1:17).

How did John react? He didn’t run up and slap Christ on the back, did he? John didn’t approach Jesus with a bear hug. He fell down as though dead. In other words, He was so in awe of his Lord, He immediately worshiped Him.

Worship Check
Think about your own worship. Whether you’re singing choruses or hymns really doesn’t matter. God doesn’t even care if you lift your hands, clap or just stand still. He’s looking at your heart. And He wants your full attention on Him. He desires your adoration. Your respect. Your honor.

Though I like to think that I’ll run to God and jump into His arms when I see Him in heaven, the truth is I’ll probably fall face down and barely be able to whisper, “Thank You, thank you, thank you, thank you” for the first 10,000 years I’m in His presence.

Once we fall down in genuine worship to Him, guess what He does. He picks us up! That’s right. Keep reading what happened to John.

God wants to pick you up, too. He wants to hold you, to draw you near. But first, He wants your undivided worship. And that’s a whole lot more than how you feel when swaying to a fun tune.

Just something to think about.