When Jesus is the Lord of His Church: Worship

When Thunder Becomes Worship

Why the Lord of the Church Deserves Your Awe

Can I tell you something that's been rattling around in my head lately? We've domesticated God.

I know that sounds harsh, but hear me out. We've turned the God who speaks and galaxies explode into existence into a cosmic life coach. We've reduced the One whose voice breaks cedars and shakes the wilderness into a divine therapist who exists primarily to make us feel better about our choices. And somewhere in all our casual "God is good all the time" Instagram captions, we've forgotten what it means to stand in absolute, knee-buckling awe.

Psalm 29 doesn't let us get away with that. It's a psalm that grabs you by the shoulders and says, "Remember who you're dealing with here." And honestly? I think we need that wake-up call.

The Voice That Makes Creation Tremble

Let's start with what David actually wrote in Psalm 29. The CSB translation opens with this: "Ascribe to the LORD, you heavenly beings, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness."

Notice who's being commanded to worship here? Heavenly beings. Angels. The creatures who actually see God's throne room. David is essentially saying, "Even those who stand in the direct presence of God need to be reminded to give Him the glory He deserves." If beings who've never known anything but God's presence need this reminder, how much more do we?

But then the psalm shifts, and this is where it gets really interesting. Seven times—and this isn't accidental—David writes "the voice of the LORD." The voice of the LORD is over the waters. The voice of the LORD is powerful. The voice of the LORD is majestic. The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars. The voice of the LORD flashes with flames of fire. The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness. The voice of the LORD makes the deer give birth.

David is describing what happens when God speaks. When you really understand this—when it sinks in that the same voice that commanded "Let there be light" in Genesis is the voice that sustains every atom in your body right this second—worship becomes less of a duty and more of an involuntary response.

Think about the miracles over nature in Genesis. God spoke, and oceans gathered. He spoke, and mountains rose. He spoke, and the sun ignited. That's the foundation of understanding who we're dealing with when we come to worship.

The Power That's Actually Available to You

Here's where this gets personal, and I mean really personal. Because Paul, in Ephesians 1:18-23, prays something absolutely staggering. He prays that we would understand "the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the mighty working of his strength. He exercised this power in Christ by raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavens—far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he subjected everything under his feet and appointed him as head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way."

Let me connect the dots here because this is too important to miss. The same power that David describes in Psalm 29—the power that controls thunderstorms and splits oaks and makes the ground shake—is the power that raised Jesus from the dead. And Paul says that same resurrection power is "toward us who believe."

Not "was available to the apostles." Not "is reserved for super-spiritual people who pray four hours a day." Toward us. You. Me. The people reading this while waiting for their coffee to brew or sitting in traffic or trying to figure out how to make it through another week.

The God who commands heavenly beings to worship Him, whose voice literally shapes the natural world, has made His power available to you through Jesus Christ. And if that doesn't fundamentally change how you approach worship—how you approach everything—then I don't think we've really understood it yet.

I know what you might be thinking: "That sounds great, but my life doesn't feel very powerful. I'm struggling with the same issues I was struggling with last year. I can't even get my kids to listen to me, much less command nature." I get it. I've been there. Some days I'm still there.

But God's power is not primarily about making your circumstances easier. It's about making you capable of living a life that reflects His glory even in circumstances that should destroy you. It's about resurrection. Not just in the future, but right now. Dead marriages brought back to life. Dead dreams reanimated. Dead faith resurrected.

The power is there to make you a walking miracle.

Dressed for the King's Presence

Isaiah 61:10 gives us this beautiful image: "I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; I will exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation and wrapped me in a robe of righteousness, as a groom wears a turban and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels."

When you come into the presence of the King described in Psalm 29—the One whose voice breaks cedars—you don't show up in your everyday clothes. You come dressed in garments worthy of His glory. But here's the grace: you're not the one who provides those garments. He does. He clothes you in salvation. He wraps you in righteousness.

This is what it means that Jesus is Lord of His Church. He's not just Lord in the sense of "boss" or even "master." He's Lord in the sense of the One who has every right to your worship because He's the One who made you presentable for worship in the first place.

You know how sometimes you walk into a really fancy restaurant and feel underdressed, like everyone's staring at you thinking you don't belong? That's how we should feel approaching the God of Psalm 29—except Jesus has already dealt with the dress code.

He's given you robes of righteousness. He's made you worthy to stand in the presence of the One whose voice makes the wilderness writhe.

God is worthy of the best. Not your leftovers. Not your distracted Sunday morning where you're mostly thinking about brunch. Not your backup plan when everything else has failed. The best. And the stunning reality is that He's made it possible for you to give Him the best because He's given you His best—Jesus.

What Worship Actually Looks Like

So, if all of this is true—if God is really this powerful, if His power is really available to us, if Jesus really has dressed us appropriately for the King's presence—what does worship actually look like?

Psalm 92:1-5 gives us a framework: "It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praise to your name, Most High, to declare your faithful love in the morning and your faithfulness at night, with a ten-stringed harp and the music of a lyre. For you have made me rejoice, LORD, by what you have done; I will shout for joy because of the works of your hands. How magnificent are your works, LORD, how profound your thoughts!"

Notice the pattern: declaration, thanksgiving, joy—all rooted in what God has done. This isn't manufactured emotion or working yourself up into a religious frenzy. This is the natural overflow of actually seeing God for who He is.

And then there's Matthew 5:16, where Jesus says, "In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven." Worship isn't just what happens on Sunday morning when the band plays "How Great Thou Art" or "How Great Is Our God" or "Praise Forever to the King of Kings"—though those songs can absolutely be worship. Worship is living a life so obviously transformed by the power of the God who controls thunder that other people can't help but give Him glory.

Let's be honest with each other for a minute. Sometimes we treat worship like it's about getting something from God. We show up on Sunday hoping for an emotional experience, a motivational message, maybe a solution to whatever problem is crushing us that week. And listen, God absolutely cares about your problems and He does speak into your circumstances. But if that's all worship is to you, you've missed the entire point.

Worship is about ascribing to the LORD the glory due His name. It's about recognizing that the God described in Psalm 29—powerful, majestic, sovereign over all creation—is also the God who calls you His own through Jesus Christ. And that should absolutely wreck you in the best possible way.

Living Under Jesus as Lord

Here's where the rubber meets the road: what does it actually mean that Jesus is Lord of His Church?

It means He's not a consultant you bring in when you need advice. He's not a service provider you call when you need something fixed. He's the Lord. The One described in Psalm 29 with a voice that shakes mountains. The One who was raised from the dead by the same power that created everything. The One who sits at the right hand of God, far above every other authority.

When Jesus is truly Lord of His Church, it changes everything. It changes how we make decisions—not based on what's most comfortable or most profitable, but on what brings Him glory. It changes how we handle conflict—not avoiding it or steamrolling people, but addressing it in ways that reflect His character. It changes our priorities, our spending, our relationships, our ambitions.

And if I'm being completely honest? This is where most of us struggle. We love the idea of a powerful God when we're singing about it on Sunday. We're all in on the resurrection power when we're reading inspiring quotes about it. But when it comes to actually submitting to Jesus as Lord of our actual lives, with our actual decisions, in our actual relationships? That's when we start hedging our bets.

We want just enough of God to feel spiritual, but not so much that He disrupts our plans. We want the benefits of His power without the surrender that comes with acknowledging His lordship. We want to be clothed in robes of righteousness on Sunday and then put on our regular clothes for the rest of the week.

But that's not how this works. You don't get to compartmentalize the God of Psalm 29. You don't get to worship Him when it's convenient and ignore Him when it's costly. Either He's Lord of everything, or He's not really Lord at all.

The Invitation Standing Before You

So here we are. You've read all this. You've seen the power described in Psalm 29. You've heard about the resurrection power available through Ephesians 1. You've been reminded that God has clothed you in garments worthy of His presence. You've been challenged to let your life be worship that points others to Him.

Now what?

I think the question we each have to answer is this: Are we willing to let Jesus actually be Lord of His Church—starting with the part of His Church that is our own life?

Because here's the truth: the same power that controls creation, the same power that raises the dead, the same power that makes heaven itself worship—that power is available to you so you can live in a way that gives God the glory due His name.

And when you do that—when you really embrace Jesus as Lord—worship stops being something you do for an hour on Sunday and becomes the air you breathe. Every decision becomes an act of worship. Every conversation becomes an opportunity to point to His glory. Every challenge becomes a chance to see His power at work.

That's what it means to worship when Jesus is Lord of His Church. Not perfect performance. Not manufactured emotion. Not religious duty. But genuine, awe-filled, life-transforming recognition of who He is and what He's done.

Your Action Plan

Making Worship Real

Here's how to actually live this out this week:

Day 1-2: Sit with Psalm 29. Read it slowly. Out loud if possible. Don't rush past the imagery. Let yourself actually picture what David is describing. Write down every phrase about "the voice of the LORD" and spend time considering what it means that this God speaks to you.

Day 3: Pray through Ephesians 1:18-23. Not just reading it, but actually praying it. Ask God to help you understand the immeasurable greatness of His power toward you. Ask Him to show you specific areas of your life where you need that resurrection power right now.

Day 4: Take inventory. List out the areas of your life where you're holding back from fully surrendering to Jesus as Lord. Be specific. Your finances? Your relationship? Your career decisions? Your daily schedule? Write them down, then one by one, tell Him you're giving Him lordship over each area.

Day 5: Dress the part. Spend time thanking God for clothing you in salvation and righteousness. Remind yourself that you can approach Him not because you've earned it, but because Jesus has made you worthy. Let that reality change how you pray today.

Day 6: Practice declaration. Following Psalm 92's pattern, declare God's faithful love in the morning and His faithfulness at night. Set alarms on your phone if you need to. One when you wake up, one before bed. Take two minutes each time to verbally thank God for specific things He's done.

Day 7: Live for His glory. Pick one specific interaction you know you'll have today and consciously decide beforehand to conduct it in a way that could cause the other person to give glory to God. Then actually do it. Then notice what happens.

This isn't about adding more religious activities to your already busy life. This is about fundamentally reorienting your life around the reality of who God is and what He's done for you through Jesus Christ.

The God whose voice breaks cedars wants to speak into your life. The God who controls thunderstorms wants to direct your path. The God who makes heaven worship wants your worship too—not because He needs it, but because you need to give it. Because worship is what transforms us from people who are just surviving into people who are actually living the life we were created for.

So, let me ask you one more time:

Will you let Jesus be Lord of His Church? Will you let Him be Lord of your life?

Because He's worthy. He's always been worthy. And when you finally see that—really see it—worship becomes less like duty and more like breathing.

Blessings,

Donna