“Boring is defined as someone or something dull or uninteresting” [www.yourdictionary.com]. As humans, we find certain things and certain people interesting; at the same time, hearing someone discuss other topics may put us to sleep, as we have zero interest in those matters.
It is a natural human response to avoid activities which we find boring. As far as people go, we may not try to avoid completely those folks whom we find uninteresting, but we may make an effort not to get stuck listening to them speak for a long period of time.
What about worship? We refer to worshipping the God of heaven. The principles we will discuss would apply to every instance of worshipping God, regardless of the place or number of people involved, but in this article we are speaking specifically about worshipping the Lord God in the assembly of a local church on the first day of the week.
You may or may not be aware of this truth: some members of God’s family consider their worship experience to be boring. Because of that, they struggle. They struggle with guilt because they know they need to attend and participate in the services (forsaking such assembling is unacceptable, Hebrews 10:25), but the worship in which they engage “does not do anything for” them. That makes them contemplate skipping services, which makes them feel guilty again. They feel caught in this guilt trap when, as they see it, their dilemma would be eliminated if the worship were not so boring.
“I mean, think about it, we sing some songs that were written two hundred years ago. Yawn, yawn.” We personally love some of the more modern songs. We also love some of the oldies, but goodies. A long time ago, we realized that a spiritual song’s Scripuralness and appeal to hearts that are devoted to the Lord has nothing to do with the historical year in which a human wrote the lyrics or tune. A song is not “amazing” or “lousy” because of the era in which it was written or the tempo with which it is led.
God calls on us to approach Him with lips and hearts which are in tune with one another (Mark 7:6). He wants us to worship “in spirit” (John 4:24), which would be a sincere pouring out of praise from the heart. God calls on all Christians to sing, as He says, “singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:19). The prisoners Silas and Paul prayed and sang hymns to God at midnight (Acts 16:25). We do not get the impression that doing so bored them out of their minds.
For some reason, the Psalmist looked forward to going to the place of worship: “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go into the house of the LORD’” (Psalm 122:1). His heart was ready for the worship experience. We further read in the book of Psalms, “Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker” (Psalm 95:6). A heart that loves and reveres the Maker will be prepared to bow before Him to honor and praise Him.
When we pour out our hearts in prayer to our Father, offering our thanks, making known our requests, and confessing our failures (Philippians 4:6,7), there is nothing boring about that, my friend! Sure, the voice of the young man who leads the prayer might crack because he is nervous, and the elderly brother who guides our prayer may stumble over a word or two, but how blessed we are to be God’s family and have the privilege of worshipping Him!
When we make our financial contribution, giving bountifully and cheerfully so the church can preach to lost people (2 Corinthians 9:6,7), that is not a boring undertaking, is it? When we break bread and our minds go back to the torture that our Savior endured for us on the cross (1 Corinthians 11:23-26), there is nothing boring about that, would you not agree?
When the living word of the living God is presented, that allows us to grow — grow in knowledge, grow in faith, grow in commitment, and grow closer to the One Who gave us that powerful message. Surely the word that lives and gives life (1 Peter 1:23-25) does not bore us when we hear it.
One sister whom we know travels three hours each Sunday in order to worship the Creator according to the New Testament pattern – that is three hours in one direction, then three more hours to get back home. Why would a person be motivated to do such a thing? She is in love with the One Whom she worships, and that makes all the difference in the world!
About a year ago, a seven-year old boy said, “Grandma, wouldn’t it be great if we could go to Bible class and worship every day?!” I hope that precious grandson of mine never loses such an attitude.
See if this sounds familiar. Soccer and hockey are boring, and you have no interest in them. But, that all changes when you have a child or grandchild who plays. What changes? You love one of the players (or coaches) and you learn the rules of the game. With your new understanding and interest, you now love the game! What has happened? Your attitude changed and you became a lover of that which you once found to be boring. The same thing can happen to a worshipper: he can go from being bored to being excited about worship. It is all about the heart.
— Roger D. Campbell