Grass under my feet

While recently in South Africa I was standing in a circle with a group of leaders worshipping God in the open air. My eyes were closed. We were singing songs and I realised that the only unusual sensation I was feeling was that grass was under my feet. I guess it’s unusual for me to be worshipping God with grass under my feet!

I really felt that God started speaking to me about how often He had been worshipped when men had grass under their feet. He was glorified by worship that was in the context of action, not simply in worship that’s in a meeting place with a gathered congregation.

God reminded me of how David worshipped Him by running towards Goliath, confident that he would remove his head that day, with the motivation, ‘That all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel’ (1 Sam. 17:46). Goliath did not represent simply a problem but an opportunity for God to get great glory, and not only in Israel but in ‘all the earth’!

I found myself pondering Moses walking on dry land through the Red Sea and standing on the other side with a mighty song of praise. He had fresh revelation of God. ‘Who is like you among the gods O Lord? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in praises, working wonders?’ (Exod. 15). He had a revelation of God not simply at his desk with his books open in a context of study or hidden away privately on his knees in prayer, but in a context of marching forward with faith. He not only found an escape route from Egypt, he found a revelation of God that overwhelmed him, and inspired wonderful worship.

What about those who walked round the walls of Jericho and gave God great glory with their shout of faith? God was truly worshipped in a context where grass was under people’s feet.

Let me encourage you in these days of PA, mixing desks, magnificent guitarists, sensitive keyboard accompaniments and everything that we tend to associate with worship, that God is magnificently glorified by steps of faith that look to Him and result in bringing Him glory.

For some of you that will be the adventure of planting a new church, for others it will be finding the courage to speak to another mum at the school gate or inviting a neighbour to Alpha. Let me encourage you to worship God ‘with grass under your feet’!