Worship

Worship can be a noun as in we are going to worship. When used as a noun, there is no guarantee that anything spiritual is going on. Growing up in Papua New Guinea, they used the phrase see the church (translated). However, if it is used as a verb, it describes the act of the heart submitting to God and recognizing His awesome majesty. I ran across the following definition which I thought was right on - “reverent, heartfelt response of the whole person—mind, body, and spirit—to the majesty, holiness, and love of God and the Bible. It is both an internal attitude and an external expression, rooted in Scripture and shaped by the knowledge of God’s nature as eternal, sovereign, and supremely good”. True worship is not just praying, or praising, or reading God’s word. True worship encompasses everything that has to do with rightly seeing God. Worship fills the whole being in an unspeakable sense of God’s presence, His character, and His supremacy over all things. Often, the trials that we face can forge a deeper sense of His grace, which in turn gives us greater love and devotion. I read a quote the other day that said, “My worship echoes in places my tears once lived.” Our worship replaces the doubt, the sin, the addictions, the temptations, our pride, and the love of the world. In Isaiah 35, as the prophet speaks of the coming of the Messiah, who we know as Jesus, it speaks of the miracles and the work Jesus will do. I love the image of transformation as Isaiah say, “In the haunts where jackals once lay, grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.” In our own lives, the jackals might represent sin, the world, the Devil, our own sinful nature, or all the above. True worship transforms us. Romans 12 speaks of our true act of worship being “offering ourselves as living sacrifices”. The outcome will be that we will no longer conform to the world but be transformed by the renewing of our mind. Our worship doesn’t lead us to look back at where we have been or focus on the many ways we have failed God, but rather to look forward toward what God is directing us to do. Worship is not a single act but should be a totality of all we say and do. Everything we do is related to God and should be a deep heartfelt expression of our faith. Father, to You we lift up our hearts in praise and worship, setting aside the things of the world that tempt us and focusing on You. Amen