Turning Your Back to God
A funny thing happened last Sunday at our worship service - our projector failed, so we decided to turn our back to the praise team to look at the lyrics on a monitor in the back. It was weird because our praise team just saw our backs, and it was weirder for the people who came in because the entrance to the sanctuary was in the back. They all looked startled and a look of “why are you guys facing the wrong direction?” I chuckled to myself when people who were late to service were surprised to see the whole congregation see them come in late.
But something struck me...we “Christians” do this all the time. No not facing the opposite direction during praise, but we tend to forget why we’re in church in the first place. Instead of coming to worship the risen Lord who gave up everything for our sins & weaknesses, we look at other people and judge them. Matthew 7:3 asks, “....why focus on the speck in your brother’s eye and yet pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?”
We tend to forget that people are messy with their own sins, and more importantly we forget that we’re messy as well with all our sins that we’re struggling with. So why do we tend to forget God especially in church and focus on what our brothers’ and sisters’ were wearing or what they did or why they act a certain way. Yes, yes, there should be Biblical, loving accountability, but shouldn’t we remember that we’re just as sinful as the next person?
I think that God the Father is saddened not only with the sin in us but how we tend to put people in a higher standard than ourselves. We give them in our mind all these expectations as believers, and yet we ourselves don’t meet any of those standards. Do you know what Jesus would call us when we do that? Pharisees! He hated the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law because they exuded spiritual righteousness but inwardly condemned and judged people all around them.
So in a way, they turned their backs to God and focused on people. Church shouldn’t be like that. It should be a place where the family of God comes to face God and not to turn their backs to Him. Once we turn our backs to Him then we automatically focus on other things instead of the one who loves and cares for us. This is why we have many churches fighting, splitting, and eventually people leaving.
My advice the next time you go to church - don’t turn your back to God. Don’t focus on other people but focus on the Lord because if you do, it doesn’t become a church but another social place to judge and ridicule others. It won’t feel like a church, and you won’t feel the presence of God during worship service and in your faith. Meet Him face to face.