God instructed the Israelites, through Moses, to build an altar of stones to worship Him. On that altar they would sacrifice burnt offerings and worship God. But God told Moses not to use a tool and turn the stones into dressed stones. They were not to change or alter the stones, because in doing so, that would defile the altar.

I think maybe one of the reasons that God wanted the stones to be unaltered was because when we start putting our own stuff into our worship, it can quickly become about us instead of God.

We start to admire our work instead of His glory.

We focus on our abilities to make the dressed stones. We develop a “look what I did for God” mentality.

And the bottom line is: Worship isn’t about us. It’s not about a fancy altar. It is about WHO we are worshipping. Worship is about Him.

Last night, while at my church’s youth group worship service, something really cool happened. We were in the middle of singing a beautiful praise song when a fuse blew and the sound system suddenly went out. But what was so cool about it was our worship leader never stopped singing. So we all just followed his lead. For a few minutes, there was no music, no special lighting. All that could be heard across the room was the sound of voices praising our glorious Savior. And you know what? That was enough.

Because He is more than enough.

So take time to worship Him today. Oh, and leave your dressed stones at home. 😉 Simply come. Just you! That’s all He wants anyway!

“You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it, you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, you, God, will not despise.” Psalm 51:16-17

Click on the title and go to the blog to listen to “O Come to the Altar” by Elevation Worship if you get a chance.