How do you know if the jewel of your faith is missing? Here are three questions designed to set you on the path to rediscovering that jewel of worship.

First question: Is your public worship marked by creativity and variety? Do you linger over the words of the hymn? Do you let the song sink into your soul and minister to your heart? Do you leave the service chattering about the speaker's skills or meditating on the eternal words of God? It's time to stop reacting to the service—judging the songs, the speaker, and the length—and start participating in worship. Enter each aspect of the meeting with creativity and variety. Imagine the words of the hymn. Reli

ve the beauty of the music. Apply God's Word immediately to a specific area of your life or to someone you know. If we wait for a "perfect atmosphere" to worship God, we will never ascribe to Him the worth He already deserves. Pay less attention to other people and concentrate more on the living Lord.

Second: Does your private worship have depth and consistency? Years ago I was working closely with a man who was trying to help me understand private worship. He went through an extremely low time in his life. I went by his home one afternoon and he wasn't there. His wife said, "I think he's down at the office." It was raining; in fact, by the time I got to the center of Naha, Okinawa, my boots splashed through the puddles. I made my way around the corner to this small, inauspicious office. Before I saw him, I could hear him. He was singing. The words from that great hymn, "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing" trickled out through the falling rain. I heard, "Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, / Prone to leave the God I love; / Here's my heart, O take and seal it; / Seal it for Thy courts above." I stood outside that little bamboo shack, looking into his candlelit room. I never told him that I came, because that had become a sacred place. His private worship was obvious to me. I walked away, having learned more in that brief moment than I could have learned in a year of instruction. My dear friend knew how to worship publicly because he worshiped privately.

The third question is a simple one: If you are not a worshiper, why not? Step into the throne room with Isaiah and blend your voice with the seraphim singing "Holy, Holy, Holy." Our God still seeks our worship.

Adapted from the sermon, "Worship: Let It Shine! Let It Shine!" in the Growing Deep in the Seasons of Life audiocassette series (Anaheim, Calif.: Insight for Living, 1985), GCL11B.