worship control

There is a never-ending array of controls being invented every day to make the manipulation of our daily lives more streamlined and easy. Isn’t that what control is at a very basic level? Manipulation.

But the most important control is the control of self, and this is the control we ignore and avoid above all. Not only do we avoid self-control; we sprint toward controlling other people. It feels easier to control someone else, or at least try to, than to have self-control.

Look at the story of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4.

Both brothers bring a gift or offering, a form of worship to God. We don’t know specifically why, but God accepts Abel’s offering and doesn’t accept Cain’s. Cain has some kind of deficiency in the way he worshiped God (which begs the questions, is God really okay with any form of worship?), but God gives Cain the opportunity to make it right and tells Cain if he doesn’t do what is right, sin is crouching at his door waiting to pounce.

The word used to describe the sin waiting for Cain gives the imagery of someone stretching out after something. It gives us the picture that sin is enticing him, trying to convince him to move in a certain direction. Sounds like control doesn’t it? Sounds like manipulation.

This is where God tells Cain, “but you must master it.” Cain must master his sin and choose to worship God. The opportunity to worship God will be lost if Cain doesn’t master his sin. The word for “master” here means to take dominion over something. God is telling him to take control. If Cain can take control of himself, if he can take dominion over his own desire and submit to what God is asking, he will be able to worship God.

But Cain doesn’t master his sin. Cain doesn’t take dominion over what is crouching at his door. Cain takes dominion over his brother. Committing murder, Cain masters Abel.

How many times have we missed an opportunity to truly worship God because instead of controlling ourselves, we try and control someone else?

This question hits particularly close to home. I am the prototypical over-thinking, self-absorbed, emotionally unbalanced, quintessential example of a modern worship leader. I believe self-control is a key issue and element of true worship for God, but I don’t believe it enough to let it permeate my daily actions consistently.

I think about the last argument I got in: what I said and how I chose to say it. Control. I think of the last time I had to convince someone of my opinion. Control. I think of the way I know exactly how to push the emotional buttons of my wife, all the while protecting and preserving my own. Control.

If you are a leader in a church, think of your last sermon, or the last time of worship you lead. Think of those carefully placed words, or that perfectly planned crescendo. Control.

Control is powerful. A.W. Tozer in The Knowledge of the Holy says, “We want a God we can in some measure control.” If we can’t control ourselves, trying to control others, how far of a leap is it really toward controlling God?

Take a lesson from Cain, being unable to control himself, he controlled Abel, and missed his opportunity to worship.

Let’s let go of our attempt to control others and embrace the way God asks us to control ourselves. Because self-control is not only evidence and fruit of the Holy Spirit.

Self-control is worship.