As I read the book, I feel as if I am having a direct conversation with the author, and feel Mr. Peterson gently encouraging me to stand up again from my slump and walk in and with Christ. In fact, I am finding quotable texts more frequently than I get a chance to write a blog post here.
Anyways, here's one on worship.
I have put great emphasis on the fact that Christians worship because they want to, not because they are forced to. But I have never said that we worship because we feel like it. Feelings are great liars. If Christians only worshipped when they felt like it, there would be precious little worship that went on. Feelings are important in many areas, but completely unreliable in matters of faith. Paul Scherer is laconic: 'The Bible wastes very little time on the way we feel'. We live in what one write has called the 'age of sensation'. We think that if we don't feel something there can be no authenticity in doing it. But the wisdom of God says something different, namely, that we can act ourselves into a new way of feeling much quicker than we can feel ourselves into a new way of acting. Worship is an act which develops feelings for God, not a feeling for God which is expressed in an act of worship, our deep, essential need to be in relationship with God is nurtured.
-pp. 46, Life At Its Best by Eugene Peterson
May God have mercy on me that I worship and serve Him always.
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. - Rom 12:1
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