Praise Him
What if God were on Facebook? What would his page look like? And what if he approached his profile the way most us do?
The Deity Relationship status: Triune and serenely blissful Number of friends: Only I know Unfriended: List currently blocked Photos: None available (see second commandment) Timeline: From the beginning—Created the world, didn't I? What's on your mind? You Recent posts: My book is still the all-time bestseller and the bestseller every year.
As someone has said, I’m glad that we are called to seek God’s face and not his Facebook. God doesn't need a Facebook page because he has already revealed himself in Scripture and in the person and work of Jesus Christ. The picture we get from Scripture is a God who is eminently worthy of our praise and adoration.
Sadly, we often give short shrift to praising God. Why is it that we don’t gravitate more to praise? Maybe it’s because we’re Americans. One of Emerson’s most popular essays was “Self-Reliance.” We often hear our kids say something like: “Please, mother, I would rather do it myself.” We like thinking of ourselves as self-made men and women. Browse for awhile at the “Do-it yourself” section of the bookstore. We like to do things for ourselves. This produces an unhealthy brand of self-focus. There’s a lot of atheism in the church. Too much that is mostly about us and too little about God. People say, “Church is where we go to find out how to live better lives.” There’s an element of truth in that. But sometimes “how to live a better life” becomes just another self-help technique. We don’t need God for that.
When we truly understand who God is and the magnitude of his majesty, we will explode with praise and awe and wonder as we worship. Unfortunately, we sit in our pews, like people next to one another on a bus, and few cut loose. Our praise is measured. Our enthusiasm is tempered. Nitezsche spoke for many outside the church today when he said, “You must look more redeemed if I am to believe in your Redeemer.” So we need to be more expressive. This starts with personal time spent with God each day. Chasing after Him and longing to know Him better. When this happens, our corporate worship becomes the culmination of a week-long pursuit, where we thirst to know God’s heart and mind more fully.