Worship & Your Nervous System

💃🏾🌹 THE POWER OF WORSHIP IN TRAUMA HEALING 💃🏾🌹

Oxford Languages Defines worship as:
The feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity.
"the worship of God"

Interestingly, Dr Stephen Porges, founder of Polyvagal Theory has discussed the importance of cultivating a sense of “awe” as part of restoring the health of the nervous system.

As believers, the ultimate source of awe is God Himself. The Bible will often describe this as the “fear of the Lord”

When we worship God, there is a change in the spirit and the body.

In the presence of the Lord a natural surrender occurs in which we may weep, tremble, or move in ways that we do not normally do. Not just the spirit, but the physical body surrenders/yields to the Lord.

Worship is the expression of the awe of God.
When we worship, we are brought into the presence of the Lord.

Here we are in the presence of perfection and purity. We are in the presence of all that is good and true.

This presence is healing & restorative. It is the presence of the Creator who designed your body & your Spirit.

When we worship, we are not paying attention to ourselves, but we are EXPRESSING ourselves to Jesus.

Biblical worship includes, dancing, singing, shouting, clapping & more.

In this place, we humble ourselves and the focus of our hearts and minds is on Him.

The Bible says that He dwells in the praises of His People (Psalm 22).

Worship has a powerful effect on the nervous system. It stimulates good neuroplasticity & restores neuro-connections that have been injured by trauma & shock.

It brings a sense of deep meaning back into the heart that has been paralyzed by meaninglessness/emptiness because we are faced in the presence of ultimate holy meaning.

It brings peace to the body & mind burdened with anxiety, fear and shock.

It preserves and restores sanity to the worshipper.
And it removes attention away from the self and upward toward that which is Worthy, and True.

The Bible describes in vivid detail that worship is a huge element of heaven. And it also gives the picture of how a holy God desires to be worshipped.

In New Age Spirituality there is a sense of worship toward the human body, toward nature and elements of nature, or an attempt to worship god through means that He does not want to receive worship.

However, these awe-inspiring elements of life (the body, nature and its wonders) are not meant to be worshipped but to point to the one who is worthy of ALL worship: Jesus.

When we worship Him as He desires to be worshipped - healing happens in us.

A few Scriptures about worship:

🌹John 4:23-24 (Words of Jesus to the woman at the well)
But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

🌹Romans 12:1–2
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

🌹Hebrews 12:28–29
Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.

🌹Revelation 4:9–11
And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
“Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were created.”

🌹Psalm 95:6-7
Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand.

I'll be going live tomorrow (Tuesday, January 23) in the Faithful Coaching Pop-Up Group to talk about this more including some of the specific science/nervous system elements of worship. And worship as a neuro-protective & restorative (yes i made that word up) part of brain and nervous system health.