Worship

Psalm 95:6-7 - "Come, kneel before the Lord our Maker, for He is our God. We are His sheep, and He is our Shepherd. Oh, that you would hear Him calling you today and come to Him!" TLB
Worship. We hear that word so often in our church circles. We have come to identify worship in several ways but mainly we define worship as something we do on Sunday morning at church. I believe we are far removed from the truth about worship when we define it as such.
First, we must discover what worship means. Worship is something that comes from our heart and mind. It is a decision we make to declare something worthy of our devotion and undivided attention. Therefore, worship may have nothing to do with church or God at all, but rather is a simple act of placing extreme importance on someone or something. Second, we must discover how we worship. It may mean nothing more than giving someone or something credence of its/their existence. It may mean we get up every morning and acknowledge that someone or something takes priority in our lives on a daily basis so we pay homage. We may throw money at it/them. We may say words of honor. We may even carry on conversation.
The kind of worship I am speaking of is the worship of God, the Almighty God, Creator of Heaven and Earth. I struggle with this definition of the worship of God...three songs, scripture, a message and a prayer. What? Listen, I can get in my car everyday turn on raunchy music for three songs, read a chapter of a dirty magazine, listen to a good self-help guru and pray to a plastic icon on my dashboard and call it worship but it certainly is not worship of Almighty God. So Godly worship really is more than that. True Godly worship is first, acknowledging Almighty God as the one and only true God. Second, confessing that His Only Begotten Son is Jesus is the only way to eternal salvation. Thirdly, receiving Him as your Lord. Fourthly, repenting(turning away from) the former things in your life. And finally, living everyday for Him. To me, those are the primary elements of worship. The songs, scripture, messages, teachings, prayers...they are all important, but they should be the things we do as a result of our love and honor for Almighty God. If we are not careful those things become idols, things we do out of habit, things we soon say are mandatory.
That greatest worship we can give to God? Our lives, our love, our trust, our time, our talents, our goals, our family, our job...basically, let us kneel before the Lord our God our Maker, for He is our God. Come to Him with all that we are and ever hope to be. That is worship.
You are loved, Pastor Roger