Familiar Experiences Are Not Always Experiences of Faith?

Posts are the original thoughts and writings of Rev. Kelly Bates Oglesby

As I explore different worship experiences in the Christian faith, I encounter expressions of faith that while fresh they are indeed foreign to me. I am accustomed to worship experiences dynamic and engaging. Songs that resonate with history and promise of bright futures set to a rhythm that sways to drum beats, foot tapping, hand clapping, and punctuated with hallelujahs.

I have visited sanctuaries rich with architectural design and laden with symbolism. The quiet and reverent experience full of the realization that words fail us to identify, explain, or express God and godliness adequately. So believers join in awesome silence to meditate on God's greatness and our human frailty. The hymns ancient yet relevant as we sing praises to exalt God - God who never changes yet God who is doing a new thing.

In this period of exploration and self examination I have come to realize the experiences that are so familiar to me are not always faith-building. Some of those experiences as fond as I am of them, are simply habits and traditions that do nothing to ground me deeper in the Word of God. I can and have worshipped God without those trappings of emotional and historical ties. However, I have also learned that in order to grow in the faith I do not need to abandon all that is familiar and embrace what is foreign.

I must learn to filter everything I do through the Word of God. I must learn to allow the Holy Spirit to be my filter so that my experience and desires do not distort the Word of God to fit my self-designed goals. I must remember that as a believer I have accepted Jesus as LORD of my life and trust that His plan for my life is the best plan for my life.

Have you considered allowing God to lead you to worship?

Jer 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

Isa 64:4 For since the world began, no ear has heard, and no eye has seen a God like you, who works for those who wait for him!

Jhn 4:23 But the time is coming and is already here when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for anyone who will worship him that way.

1Cr 2:9 That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him."