Seek ye first

Matthew 6:33
          But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

When I was a child I used to sing a song based on this Bible verse. It was a very simple song which is almost exactly the Bible verse as it stands above.

Seek ye first the Kingdom of God,

And His righteousness,

And all these things will be added unto you,

Hallelu, Hallelujah. 

I love the old songs and choruses like this because they are so simple and say exactly what needs to be said. There is no pretension, nothing added and nothing taken away. In the modern era many of our songs and music has become very complicated and very sophisticated. There is nothing in essence wrong with that, worshipping God in any form is a great thing but it should not all be about the performance we give when singing.

There is a song that is sung in the Church I attend which talks about this very subject. It is something that many others before me have noticed and understood. There are many greater minds and more experienced Christians who have talked and preached on this subject. But it is something that we are guilty of time and time again, making worship more about ourselves than about God. Yes we should worship God with horns and trumpets, we should praise Him with drums and cymbals. But when it becomes more about the music than about God them we have an issue.

The song that we sing about this that I feel is a very well written song and a beautiful piece of music that does what it should. It makes you think about God and how you worship Him, it makes you think about how the music can become our focus. The words to the song are below, please read the lyrics and think about how they apply to worship in the modern era.

When the music fades 

All is stripped away 

And I simply come 

Longing just to bring 

Something that's of worth 

That will bless your heart 

I'll bring You more than a song 

For a song in itself 

Is not what You have required 

You search much deeper within 

Through the way things appear 

You're looking into my heart 

I'm coming back to the heart of worhip 

And it's all about You 

It's all about You, Jesus 

I'm sorry, Lord, for the thing I've made it 

When it's all about You 

It's all about You, Jesus 

King of endless worth 

No one could express 

How much you deserve 

Though I'm weak and poor 

All I have is yours 

Every single breath

I'll bring You more than a song 

For a song in itself 

Is not what You have required 

You search much deeper within 

Through the way things appear 

You're looking into my heart 

I'm coming back to the heart of worship 

And it's all about You 

It's all about You, Jesus 

I'm sorry, Lord, for the thing I've made it 

When it's all about You 

It's all about You, Jesus

                        (Matt Redman)