The word worship is one of those “church” terms we use, but seldom examine. We worship at our worship service with our worship music. We know what gives us the sensation of worship; that is enough. Isn’t it? What if I told you that God divided a nation and sent it into captivity because of worship? What if I told you God killed two men because of their worship? Worship matters deeply to God. Worship ought to matter deeply to us. Worship reflects the heart; it also influences it. What we worship and how we worship directly and dramatically impact our quality of life. That may seem hyperbolic, but it is true. It seems untrue only because we have a poor understanding of what worship is. Defining the term will reveal its importance. It will also demonstrate the necessity of worshipping God in the right way. Then we bring our knowledge to our practice to enhance lives to God’s glory.
Worship Defined
Worship is the expression of great honor or respect; as such, it may be directed to any object and take any number of forms. We worship what we believe in, what we respect the most. Yet, only God is truly deserving of that level of respect. God alone is awesome to inspire our worship. The Bible insists on this. See Matthew 22:37: “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.”
God, and God alone, is worthy of worship. It is owed to Him by His nature, and because of His works, which reveal His nature. As God repeatedly reminds His people, there is no other besides Him. He stands alone at the highest pinnacle of being. Supreme in every way, the perfection of perfection complete; holy, holy, holy God is truly awesome; yet, He does not force us to worship Him.
Idolatry Meaning in the Bible
God would woo His people with the singular act of divine love offered while we were still sinners that we might love Him. Christ appeared filled with grace and truth, but gentle and lowly in spirit, to win our affections. In His death and resurrection, Christ broke the bonds of sin that kept us captive to worship other gods. Now, by grace through the work of the Holy Spirit as the Gospel is proclaimed, we can see the loveliness of the Lord, to appreciate His great love for us, and to respond in worship.
Worship is the only proper response to the Gospel. As we are given life everlasting, we are given a life of everlasting worship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Worship is the greatest commandment that states all of life to the glory of God. Worship is not one thing that we do, but everything we do. See Colossians 3:17 and 1 Corinthians 10:31:
- Colossians 3:17: “And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.”
- 1 Corinthians 10:31: “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”
Now, given who God is, what He has done, and how He has loved us, reverence, honor, and respect are the only rational attitudes to hold towards Him. Therefore, at the end of the whole matter, we must assert that worship is best defined as: the full and willing assent to reality. Worship is acknowledging the truth. We could also say that worship is Theology lived out. In scripture, worship is concisely defined in Colossians 3:17.
The definition encompasses all of life; one might think such a definition impractical, but it is exactly that. The difficulty with worshipping is not a lack of opportunity, but mere neglect. We are required to do something to worship. To see what we must do, it is best to look at the two things we must not do.
Worship can only rightly be ascribed to the one true and living God, but many “worship” other gods. These poor souls are out of touch with reality. Then some would worship God, but they would do so without respect for God’s directions. These poor souls are deluded. Neither are truly worshipping nor truly at peace with reality; both suffer for it.
Idolatry; Worship Misdirect
Exodus 20:3-6: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.”
The first of the ten commandments, and the greatest commandment, is aimed at the sin of idolatry. Idolatry is the worship of anything that is not God, who alone is worthy of worship. It is at once a sin of omission and commission as we take what is due to God and deliver it to another. It is the theft of ascribed glory. Thus, it is a double offense against God and a double folly.
The human heart is prone to making idols and worshiping them. Even as Moses was receiving the commandments in the presence of God on the mountain, his brother was forging for his people an idol in the form of a golden calf. Adam and Eve were tempted to worship the idol of self, even amidst paradise. Solomon, the wisest of men, was led into idolatry, as was Samson, the strongest of men. No man is free from this temptation, and only the man Christ ever escaped it untouched. Why? Because we are made to worship.
Worship is in our nature; it is a part of the human condition. Religion is the structuring of our worship. There is no freedom from religion, only from one religion. We will worship something religiously; our only choice is the object of devotion. This is a choice of great power within our own lives. Our worship shapes our core values and perspectives, which shape our behaviors and our actions. What we worship determines how we live.
This is where idols have their appeal, for they can be made to suit any interest we might have. So it is that Paul can speak of those whose god is their stomach in Philippians 3:19: “Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)”
It was the appetite for increase and personal gain that drove our first parents into the first transgression. Our desires and appetites still drive us into crimes against God. God has written His law on every heart according to Romans 2:15 and Hebrews 10:16:
- Romans 2:15: “Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)”
- Hebrews 10:16: “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;”
To get around this must cast doubt upon the decree of God, asking ourselves, “Did God really say?” An idol steps in to give us the freeing negative response, allowing us to eat our forbidden cake and have it too. We find a vivid picture of the idolator in the book of Isaiah.
See Isaiah 44:9-20: “They that make a graven image are all of them vanity; and their delectable things shall not profit; and they are their own witnesses; they see not, nor know; that they may be ashamed. Who hath formed a god, or molten a graven image that is profitable for nothing? Behold, all his fellows shall be ashamed: and the workmen, they are of men: let them all be gathered together, let them stand up; yet they shall fear, and they shall be ashamed together. The smith with the tongs both worketh in the coals, and fashioneth it with hammers, and worketh it with the strength of his arms: yea, he is hungry, and his strength faileth: he drinketh no water, and is faint. The carpenter stretcheth out his rule; he marketh it out with a line; he fitteth it with planes, and he marketh it out with the compass, and maketh it after the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man; that it may remain in the house. He heweth him down cedars, and taketh the cypress and the oak, which he strengtheneth for himself among the trees of the forest: he planteth an ash, and the rain doth nourish it. Then shall it be for a man to burn: for he will take thereof, and warm himself; yea, he kindleth it, and baketh bread; yea, he maketh a god, and worshippeth it; he maketh it a graven image, and falleth down thereto. He burneth part thereof in the fire; with part thereof he eateth flesh; he roasteth roast, and is satisfied: yea, he warmeth himself, and saith, Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire: And the residue thereof he maketh a god, even his graven image: he falleth down unto it, and worshippeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith, Deliver me; for thou art my god. They have not known nor understood: for he hath shut their eyes, that they cannot see; and their hearts, that they cannot understand. And none considereth in his heart, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, I have burned part of it in the fire; yea, also I have baked bread upon the coals thereof; I have roasted flesh, and eaten it: and shall I make the residue thereof an abomination? shall I fall down to the stock of a tree? He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?”
We make idols according to our skills and resources. We make them, turn around, and expect them to do something for us. We wear ourselves out making them. There is no power in them to contribute to their creation. There is no power in them. The materials are used for other mundane purposes. There is nothing special about the wood, stone, words, or whatever the idol is made of.
The prophet shows us a man who burns wood on the fire and is warmed, then he makes an idol from the leftover and worships it. This is ridiculous. It does not matter how well-crafted the idol is, or how detailed its mythology it is still something created by a created being, evidently within the power of hands that made it, yet expected to work wonders beyond what those hands can work.
We are told that God has blinded these souls to their folly (see also Romans 1), and so they go on like the majority in the tale of the emperor’s new clothes, and woe to the one who dares to point out the naked truth. Having an idol exposed is extremely distressing because it upends all of life.
Of course, when your idol is made of wood or stone like Degon of old, it will fall over before the true and living God just as readily as Degon. That is why many of today’s idols are made of ideas, of thoughts grounded purely in material realms. The old gods fell, so new gods were made in the form of no gods.
Atheism is the great hypocrisy of idolatry, its claims to be an absence of religion while bearing all the trademarks of a religion. The deity is man, science provides a sacred canon, it avoids overt structures, it disavows any particular rites and rituals, but each individual settles on their place and manner of worship as they should, as everyone is a little god. The French Revolution saw the most honest expression of this religion, as they understood that religion was an unavoidable part of life.
Still, the claim seems far-fetched. Atheism has a void where God should be, and does not claim anything truly divine to fill it. How can one worship a void? How can we have worship if there is no divinity? The Bible tells us plainly that anything can become an idol if it captures our affections and commands our devotion. There were secularists in Jesus’ day as well, and many bowed to a false god whose worship is still with us today.
Worshipping Wealth
The Bible warns directly against worshipping money. Money has a special allure that singles it out among the pantheon of idols. Money directly enables our desires without any resistance or hesitation. To have money is to have potential power, which is to have influence, which is to have status, which is to have access, which is increased potential power, and all of this grants a form of popularity. Money has gravity amongst humanity such that accumulating it begins to shift the world around you, life appears different for the rich, and for the richest, even ideas of morality seem to change.
As the Scriptures say in 1 Timothy 6:10: “For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”
Wealth is an insidious idol that can hide behind other idols. We might praise enterprise, while in secret, it is only the gains from enterprise that we care for. We might praise technological advancement, or the public good, or an inspirational hero, while all the while our hearts belong to wealth.
We might even call upon God, but all we seek from Him is money. As Christian rapper Shai Linne observed, “If you come to God for money, He is not your God, money is.” See Matthew 6:24: “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”
When God is sought to grant us something other than Himself, He is not our God, but a means to our ends. Acts 8 tells the story of a magician who, upon witnessing the power of the Holy Spirit, burned all his magic books and gave the impression of seeking Christ. Yet, when opportunity arose, this sorcerer tried to buy the power of the Spirit and was sternly rebuked by Peter.
Many have followed in those deceitful steps professing the faith to gain political advantage, community, friendship, love, financial gain, status, etc. This is why the strongest churches often exist in the most persecuted places, with no incentive to join, and every incentive not to join; only those earnestly seeking God will become members of the local church.
It is cliché to lament the decline of the U.S.A.; it ought to be cliché to lament that it is not happening faster. Cultural Christianity was nothing but an idolatrous inoculation against the real thing. Moreover, the cultivation and safeguarding of cultural cachet has led churches into compromising positions of accommodating false religions. I am not here thinking of the utter nonsense which is the coexist movement, or even the well-intended folly of the Evangelicals and catholic Together document.
No, we recognize these other religions for what they are, but the most pervasive false religion of our day has been allowed to propagate itself as a kind of irreligious norm.
Ultimate Idolatry
The problem with committing idolatry is that there is only one God, and He is not “your” God. Anytime some form of God is at the center of our worldview, the gnawing fact that the god is not godlike will inevitably present itself. Furthermore, the little god gets in the way of our true object. The kind of idolatry practiced by the Egyptians, Hittites, Philistines, and Babylonians of old was imperfect, as it was not a total escape from reality. There were still outside powers constraining our desires and holding us to a standard outside of ourselves.
Humanity desires to be God; for this, we need to eliminate the very notion of anything godlike. The ancient pagan gods were like men in many regards, but what is wanted is for man to be like God. So, a new mythology was formed out of purely materialistic human observation. It made the cosmos an accident, man a product of unintelligent forces. A new ethic was framed, and a new sort of spirituality. It gradually filtered into the culture through the academy.
Humanity became the supreme being; his intellect, his technology became the supernatural. Science provided the miracles, and the social sciences framed the ethics and worldview. It became popular because it was designed to be. It teaches that we are random occurrences without any purpose or function beyond what we designate for ourselves. It teaches that we are inherently good, and that whatever evils live within us were put there by someone else. It teaches that we can do all things through technological advancement.
We have accommodated their origin story, assimilating swashes of their mythology which contradict our divinely inspired history. Evolution is not compatible with the Genesis account, and it does not need to be, but we have bent the language over backwards to make it fit in service to what?
I believe it has been in service to our comfort. We did not want to be left behind by our cultural neighbors. We did not want to abandon the convenience of the public schools or the state-funded universities. We did not want to be compared to the foolish Christians who went against Galileo. We did not want to fight a war over Genesis 1 and lose our chance to share John 3:16, but if Genesis 1 is in doubt, then how can we ask people to have confidence in John 3:16?
- John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Furthermore, if we cannot take the stand against the majority, why should anyone join our side? What exactly is our side anyway? I am using a big example, but the same sort of compromise happens in smaller forms as we violate our convictions and our consciences to have peace with the crowd. The most insidious idol of them all is our comfort. It was the idol that turned the rich young ruler away, and the crowds of John 6, many have gone after them, many go even today.
There is one true and living God, and then there are many ideas of God. We are called to worship the true and living God, not the thought of Him. We are not to worship anything we have made, whether tangible or intangible. Yet, there is a subtle way of missing the mark in all of this, a way that acknowledges the God in every way but one.
Strange Fire: Worshiping in the Wrong Way
See Leviticus 10:1-3, Numbers 3:4, and Numbers 26:61:
- Leviticus 10:1-3: “And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded them not.”
- Numbers 3:4: “And there went out fire from the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the LORD.
- Numbers 26:61: “Then Moses said unto Aaron, This is it that the LORD spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace.”
Worship has come to be something we feel as music plays in a particular atmosphere. This is easily marketable, which is good if you are in the industry selling music to religious people. It is good to make worship about what a potential customer feels, and not what a thrice-holy God has commanded. Of course, it pleases us to be pleased, and while we might not know much about the theology of worship, we do know what we like.
The misunderstanding was greatly facilitated by the worship war from the seventies up into the early two-thousands: they are ongoing in isolated skirmishes today. One side of the war wanted the old hymns and Gospel songs, while the other wanted the sounds of contemporary music.
Both sides were contending more for style than substance. I believe that was the real point of the whole affair: to get the churches in America off the substance of worship and onto stylistic preferences. Nobody won the war, except for Satan, because the result was a variety of services to meet the differing preferences of individuals. Essentially, churches, the root word means gathering, were split over taste. So, my taste must be pretty important, right?
Wrong! Worship is about the One being worshipped. If my focus is on my sensation, I am worshipping the sensation and not the Savior. When it comes to worshipping the Savior, everything we do says something about Him and what He has done. The right thing, in the right way, is the only way to worship a holy, holy, holy God.
In John chapter 4, Jesus encounters a woman from Samaria, and during their conversation, she raises the divisive issue of where God is to be worshipped. Jesus gives an answer that upends the paradigm of human religion. Jews and Samaritans had locations for worship rooted in history, tradition, and identity. All of these are set aside in our Lord’s answer.
See John 4:23-24: “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”
The issues that mattered to the Jews and Samaritans had a lot to do with who they were, but worship is all about who God is. You cannot rightly worship the God you do not know. You cannot know the God you have no relationship with. Jesus was on Earth to usher in the era of worship He was speaking about. He was even in this conversation, revealing the truth of god’s identity.
Our Lord’s primary point in this passage is that God is concerned with the heart of worship. Whatever else the Bible says about worshipping God, we must realize that it is aimed at our hearts. This accomplishes two things: first, it purifies our worship so that it is authentic and acceptable; second, it acts against the sin remaining in our hearts, improving our quality of spiritual life. So, we see that worship is for God’s glory, but for our good.
In demonstrating God’s concern for the heart of His worshippers, we see that there is a definite order in God’s design for worship. Worship is not some vague notion allowing a range of interpretation and expression; it is a well-defined heart attitude leading to particular activity. We do not get to define worship; God already has.
A God of Order
In the beginning, God created, and He created in order, and He created an order. It is the order God built into His creation that defines our understanding of the term. Psalms 19 and Job 38-42 tell us explicitly that the cosmos witnesses to the character of God.
From this, it is evident that God is a God of order, but the Bible spells it out in no uncertain terms. See 1 Corinthians 14:33: “For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.”
Here, the Apostle Paul makes an argument about order in church services, based on the character of God. According to Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, a right understanding of God directs our conduct as we worship Him together. To put it concisely, our theology directs our practice. What we believe ought to be visible in how we act. God is a God of order, and He is not worshipped by chaos or confusion.
Confusion obscures the truth, and the truth is the entire motivation for our worship. Whatever focuses us on the truth fosters worship, and whatever obscures the truth hinders our worship. It is as simple as that. Yet, what is easy to say is often harder to do; a practical example will be helpful. See Colossians 3:16: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”
When it comes to worship, Americans have been trained to think first of music, particularly of a certain kind of music which is played in church services. Worship has a sound, and in many cases, some well-produced visuals also. If we understand worship as a response, then the purpose of worship music is to elicit that response. The focus is on the person, and their focus is on achieving a state.
Paul would turn all of that thinking on its head. First, the purpose of church music is to convey the truth of the Bible, so that it deeply penetrates each worshipper and remains with them. Secondly, each individual is performing a service to all others as they sing together. Thirdly, the desired state is that of gratitude. All of this is God centered.
You see, when we come to worship together, we are looking for God, to see Him, and know him. We can look for God in the rolling ambient chords, but God is in the chords. We can look for God in the cloud of smoke, but God is not in the cloud of smoke. We can look for God in a transcend sensation, but God is not in the transcendental sensation.
Then there are the lyrics, and good is in the lyrics. Then there are our fellow believers, and God is in them. See John 15:5: “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.”
When God’s people sing the truths of God, it affirms the belief of the bruised reed and encourages the faith of the smoking flax.
Ah, but these two things constrain us. Firstly, we are bound to the truth. We have to sing songs that have something theologically sound to say, and then only those songs that can say it clearly. Second, we sing music in a way that the entire congregation can join in. Musicians will have to restrain their flourishes so as not to overshadow the voices of the congregation. The music will have to be arranged for accessibility. The sound levels will have to be carefully tended.
We are not free to do whatever we want; we are told precisely what to do. If we fail, we have not worshipped at all. We might feel that we had an experience, but it was not the experience of worship, for we are told that the experience of worship endures well beyond the glow of the moment. The regulation is there for our lasting benefit.
According to John 14:15, those who love God will keep His commandments: “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”
Those who love God will do this because they realize the goodness of these commandments. They realize that walking within the confines of the commandments leads them closer to God. Still, we like to have room for personal expression and personal taste. If these things are not a part of the worship service, where do they belong?
When I am Alone
There is a time and a place for your favorite things to draw you to praise God. It is when you are alone with Him. When you are by yourself, the only restriction is the truth. You can read from the KJV or the ESV, the NASB, or the NLT, or even the Geneva Bible in your devotion, so long as you rightly understand what God has revealed.
If you cannot penetrate the dated verbiage of the Geneva or the King James, the elegance of their prose will not help your soul. The style of music you listen to in your private worship is up to you, so long as the lyrics are trustworthy and true, leading you to appreciate God for who He is. You can worship in nature or a broom closet.
The crucial point to remember from John 4 is that we worship in spirit and truth. This is more than a feeling. We are not out to generate a sensation, but fill our minds and hearts with glorious truth. Feelings may follow; that’s good. Feelings or sensations are a byproduct of encountering truths about God’s glory.
Corporate worship, as glimpsed in Colossians 4:16, fuels private devotion as in Colossians 3:17. Conversely, what we glean in our private devotion informs our corporate worship. The life of worship flows between the private and public spheres naturally.
According to Isaiah, it was the lack of knowledge that was killing God’s people, not a lack of passion or activity, but a lack of knowledge. This is what we must remember in our public and private devotions. Knowing God is more than half the battle; it is the central pursuit of life. Worship is life.
The Life of Worship
To speak of the life of worship is to speak of the Christian life, and that is one of those undertakings in which language and understanding strain to the breaking point. We wax philosophical, throwing words in hopes that a few might hit the mark. Dear reader, what I am trying to say is that I have wrestled with the following paragraphs for many days and weeks. It is my best, but it is not complete. I do not believe any living person has a complete grasp of this topic.
Why do I say that? Because sin remains in us, and that sin keeps us from worshipping God as He ought to be worshipped. Heaven alone knows the sounds and sights of unbridled praise. Till we get there, we are on an odyssey of worship, moving ever closer to the real thing. I am somewhere on this long journey, Home, and what I offer is only what I have picked up along the way. Test as the Bereans to see if it is true: indeed, I trust all of you to test everything I write against Scripture.
To rehearse the benefits of worship is to rehearse the benefits of the Christian life. The terms might be interchangeable, or very nearly so. Nevertheless, I press on with this rehearsal to deepen our appreciation of true worship against the shallow commercial claims of an industry that has usurped the Word. Worship is so much more than a means of switching up our mood.
Worship is the opposite of the fundamental sin of godlessness. In worship, we find God positively present and active everywhere because we are focused on Him and grounded in the truth about Him. This leaves scant opportunity to miss Him. Sometimes we miss the sensation of presence, or the positive feeling about His action, but as worship in spirit and truth, our feelings give way to facts.
Knowing the fact of God’s presence and action throws a wet blanket on the flames of pride. With pride in suppressing the magnitude of our setback comes into proper perspective. Anxiety is denied the fan of self-importance for its flames. And we remind ourselves of God’s presence and actions, which answer any anxious moment. Should despair menace us, we are ready to meet it with courage, for our thoughts are set on invincible hope.
If we walk through Vanity Fair, our eyes will penetrate the veneer, for we are admiring the pearl of great price. Yes, though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we need not fear, for the Lord’s rod and staff are at hand to comfort us. Worship prepares us for life’s many trials and temptations. It immunizes us against many evils.
This is because worship is no dry devotion, nor a partial one, but is all of life to the glory of God. It is the putting on of the armor of God from Ephesians 6, the abiding in the Vine of John 15, and the planting near the stream of living water of Psalms 1.
Worship is not transactional. We do not give God worship to receive something from Him. Our worship does not add anything to God. Withholding our worship does not hurt God: it does hurt us. Worship is not a bargaining chip. Consider Psalms 50, God has no needs at all, and certainly, none we could meet. God has not come to us because He is hungry for praise. We owe God worship, but not in the way we would owe a debt of money.
Worship is God’s due by force of reason. When God demands our praise, He is only asking us to act rationally. God is not an ego trip; what He requires is perfectly correct and entirely deserved. The life of worship is not a life under tyranny. The life of worship is not burdensome or awkward.
Worship is a life of dependence in which we seek satisfaction from God, receive that satisfaction in God, and respond with gratitude to God. We receive, and we give, and in giving we receive more. As we sing praise, our hearts are tuned to sing praise. Doxology contains theology, and so doxology fuels further doxology. Orthodoxy lives within orthopraxy, so that orthopraxy declares orthodoxy. In this wonderful life, we are continually drawing up living water from a deep well.
Practical steps
You cannot worship a God you do not know; you will not worship a God you do not know. So, the first step in worshiping God is to know Him. Notice the language we are using, “know Him,” not know of Him, or about Him, but know Him. There is a very crucial difference in the way I seek to know Martin Luther and the way I seek to know my wife.
I do not have any relationship with the German reformer, but I live with my wife. Knowing about God is nothing. We must know Him personally, and then all we learn about Him will have meaning in life. You never stop getting to know God; there is no end to Him. This is the most delightful news for those who know God. You see, to know God is to love Him, because He first loved us.
Worship is not a positive mood; some of the best expressions of praise have come out of broken hearts and downcast souls. Those who need God the most, honor Him the most. See Matthew 5:3-4: “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.”
Of course, praise does not require any dramatic emotional expression. We can be earnest without being affected. At times, we may be greatly moved, and at times we may be awed into stillness. There is no one emotion appropriate to worship. Jonathan Edwards’s studies in The Religious Affections are very helpful in this area.
Corporate worship is not optional. I know a lot of men who prefer to keep their spiritual lives, and especially their spiritual affections, private. That is a great way to stifle your worship. God built fellowship for a reason, so that you would be stirred up to continue worshipping, and guided to worship in spirit and truth, and brought up to worship more and more.
Let us also acknowledge that we cannot truly worship God while we are living a pattern of disobedience to His explicit commandment in Hebrews 10:25: “For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,”
Now let’s look at a few examples of everyday worship. On most days, we eat multiple meals, and we can worship as we eat by appreciating the nourishment God has provided. We can also celebrate the gift of taste. We can contemplate all the little things that were sovereignly overseen that delivered this food to our table. We can give thanks for the hands that prepared our meal, even if we prepared it ourselves.
Each day, we typically sleep, and as we sleep, we are very vulnerable. So, we can commend ourselves into God’s care, trusting that He will keep us safe during this time. Sleeping is an expression of our finitude; we can acknowledge this in contrast to God’s infinity. We can thank God that He has provided for our need of restoration at the end of each day.
Any activity outside of sin is potentially worshipful if we have the right mindset. See Romans 12:2: “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
The world, the self, and the Devil are idol factories filling each waking moment with endless distractions from reality to tempt us away from really living. The objects themselves are nothing; the ideas are simply ideas; they only become dangerous false gods when we bow the knee.
Perhaps the easiest way to see a knee bowed to an idol is to take stock of your felt needs. Do you need this or that to live happily? Will you be undone if this or that is taken away from you? Are you resting some part of your well-being on it? All anyone needs is God; from God we receive everything else we truly require. See Mathew 6.
It is the lesson the Israelites struggled with in the wilderness. We also wander in a wilderness till we grasp it.
Conclusion
I have written the word worship far too many times in this article. That is because worship does not have perfect synonyms in my understanding. Praise comes close, as does reverence, but both carry connotations that limit their scope.
Worship is all-encompassing. It is woven into the whole of the Christian life. That single idea is the point I wish to drive deep into every heart. See, everyone is worshipping something; satisfaction only comes through worshipping God. So, we need to think about what we are doing, no matter what that is.
Not to earn anything, everything is freely given, but we receive this grace most freely when we acknowledge it most fully.
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