FOUNDATIONS 1: Part Three by Wayne Huirua
21 July, 20083.Music: an emotional tool
1) Just as romance in a marriage must be developed and maintained, so also the emotional intimacy between God and ourselves can and should be developed and sustained. One of the many tools we use to help us with this is music.
2) People are more likely to make changes in their lives if they are moved emotionally rather than intellectually.
3) Music is a powerful and effective tool to be used as part of the larger vision of the Church, to draw people closer to the Lord. We need to be realistic and intelligent with our strategic use of music.
4) Music is amoral, in other words it can be used for good or bad purposes. It is an emotional tool, not a spiritual one, even though we know it can lead to a spiritual result. The spiritual effect depends more on our motive and heart and purpose for using it, than the music itself. Perpetuating a wrong belief can lead to unnecessary fear of secular music or unjustified laziness in Christian music.
5) 1 Chronicles 25 tells us of the story of David setting up the Temple Music.
vs 7 “Asaph, Jeduthun and Heman reported directly to the King. They and their families were all trained in singing praises to the Lord; each one – 288 of them in all – was a MASTER MUSICIAN”
Music is an emotional tool and because of this, it is subject to such things as SKILL, FEEL, TASTE, OPINION and CLICHE. If it does not move the listener emotionally, there is no point in using it.
6) God responds to hearts reaching out to him. Our hearts are helped to do this with the use of emotional aids like music. It is our feelings and thoughts toward God that is the substance of our worship. We choose to use music to help us but the responsibility is ours. Our worship leaders and teams are there to help us but they cannot be held responsible if we do not worship.
7) Sometimes we are tempted to come into a time of worship with the expectation of getting a nice warm ‘buzz’ or ‘spiritual fix’ for the day or week, and if we do not experience this we are disappointed. Surely we would be better to judge a worship time by how God feels at the end of it, rather than how we feel. Do we enter into this time with the focus on getting our own needs met or genuinely to worship the Lord? Our needs are not the focus, but in God-centered worship, we find they are met as a by-product of keeping our eyes off ourselves and onto Him. As the Word assures us “If you draw near to Him, He will draw near to you” (James 4:7)
8) Despite our circumstances and situations, He is God and deserves to be worshiped and exalted for no other reason than He is worthy of it!
Although it seems unnatural to put aside ones feelings when experiencing difficulties I believe nothing touches the heart of God more than the self-less worship of His children in the midst of trial. It moves Him to compassion because to do this requires faith and God always responds to faith. Again, our worship becomes an act of sacrifice.
