Offering a Sacrifice of Praise

I’m not sure where I found this but, at the time and even now, it reminds me of the one of the purposes of our singing together in church.

While singing is not the only form of worship–it may be argued it is actually a minuscule part of what the term “worship” actually means–I believe most Evangelical Christians would automatically associate worship with the song part of a service. I was at a conference recently where the leader introduced the song portion of a session with simply “Let’s worship.” So, keeping in mind that the use of the word “worship” here equals congregational singing, take from this what you can use:

There is an old saying many Christians use: “Offer the Lord a sacrifice of praise,” referring to Hebrews 13:15. In many circles this notion of a “sacrifice of praise” almost becomes cliche. (Perhaps because worship does not often come at much cost, especially compared with the sacrifices of saints who’ve gone before us.) But when we worship with folks of various traditions, there are times when we may hear a prayer that uses language we might not naturally use or sing a song that isn’t really our style. Thai is part of what it means to be a member of a community as diverse as the church is. And perhaps that also helps shed some light on why it might require some sacrifice for us to give up ourselves. When a song isn’t working for you, consider praising God, because thai probably means it is working for someone else who is very different from you. Offer your worship as a sacrifice rather than requiring others to sacrifice for your pleasure or contentment. There is something to the notion of becoming one as God is one: it doesn’t mean that we are the same; it just means that we are united by one Spirit. After all, we can become one only if there are many of us to begin with. . . So if a song or prayer doesn’t quite work for you, be thankful that it is probably really resonating with someone who is different from you. and offer a sacrifice of praise.