We were created for one purpose – to worship, to behold Jesus, to love Him. That is the only thing that will ever satisfy us. No pleasure on earth, no promotion, no bonus, no person will ever satisfy us – only Jesus will. We were born to worship. Worship is the highest calling. That doesn’t mean that everyone has to sit in a prayer room and sing all day, but everyone is called to this heart of worship.

As worship musicians, we use the word worship a lot. But what exactly is worship? The Bible tells us that worship is a condition of the heart.

What is so unique about worship, that God declares it to be our highest calling and our one purpose? From the Scriptures, here are 9 different realities that happen when we worship.

We need all three realms of prayer – verbal prayer, meditative prayer, and contemplative prayer. But it is in contemplative prayer that we are truly changed – because the realm of contemplative prayer isn’t a place we enter and then leave. It’s a place where our hearts can abide even when our bodies and minds are doing something else.

In heaven, there will be no need to work, or preach, or write books, or pray for healing – but in heaven we will still worship. So as we worship here, we are entering into what we will do for all of eternity – to worship Jesus forever.

The meaning of life is to know Jesus. And that is why we worship – to see Him, and to know Him. We don’t worship for an encounter. We worship because He is the encounter. And knowing Him is the greatest privilege we will ever have.

“Be still and know that I am God.” Go be alone with Jesus, and simply sit still. You will never find Him in the busyness of life until you have first found Him in the stillness, in the quiet places. Elijah did not find Him in the wind or the fire but in the still, small voice. You will never find Him in the doing until you have first found Him in the being.

How important is the presence of the Lord in worship? How do we know when He is in the room? And how do we as worship leaders and musicians follow the voice of the Holy Spirit when He comes to dwell among us?

Have you ever played the piano and been so nervous that your hands were shaking and you couldn’t find the keys? Have you ever led a worship set where you started in the wrong key, came in at the wrong time, and forgot the words – all in the same song? Situations like this have happened to all of us.

When the wise men brought their gifts to Jesus, they gave us a clear pattern for how Jesus desires to be worshipped. In addition, the very gifts they brought spoke of Jesus as the Son of God, the One worthy of our worship, and the suffering Savior. How beautiful He is!

Many of the accounts in Scripture are patterns for worship. That is, often when the writers of Scripture recount an event, the Holy Spirit is revealing a deeper truth about how the Lord desires to be worshipped. This is the first in a series on patterns for worship in the Bible.

As worship musicians, we have a lot to think about during a set: playing the right notes, staying with the band, reading chord charts, following cues from other musicians, adjusting the sound of our own instrument, and paying attention to what the Lord is doing in the room.

But there is something more important than executing a set perfectly or even following the leading of the Holy Spirit perfectly. It is our hearts.

Behold this Jesus. Behold Him on the cross, suffering, bleeding, dying.