Not a Feeling.

Very often (nearly always, I'm afraid) when I come to church my feeling are uppermost in my mind. This is natural. We are human, we are "selves," and it takes no effort at all to feel. But worship is not a feeling. Worship is not an experience. Worship is an act, and this takes discipline. We are to worship "in spirit and in truth." Never mind about the feelings, We are to worship in spite of them.

-Elisabeth Elliot (Let Me be a Woman)

My thoughts are on this today. How true it is that too often we let our emotions dictate our attitude towards worship. It doesn't matter if I know every word to a song, if I burst out in tears, or if I raise my hands. If my worship is not "in spirit and in truth" then I not worshiping God. My emotions change by the hour, so therefor if I were to worship by the schedule of my emotions it would be fruitless. I need to worship in spite of my emotions as Elisabeth wrote, and that takes discipline. I am definitely still working on the discipline of doing so, but I hope to get closer and closer to authentic worship every day of my life.