The Act of Worship
Matthew 15:8
“This people draweth
nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their
hearts is far from me.”
It is hard to worship when our
eyes are on the world, on other people, on making money, being successful, or
on ourselves. To worship in spirit and in truth we have to take our eyes off
everything else and focus on Jesus, our Lord. Worship is an action we take. It
is something we do. In living a lifestyle of worship there are many ways to
demonstrate our worship. Worship is expressing our love and adoration to God,
His Son and the Holy Spirit. How often do you say, “I love you”? Can we every
say it enough? When we realize how much God loves us we will love Him all the
more. He knows our faults, our failures, and yet He loves us still. We are His
children. He loves us so much He gave His only Son to die for us.
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.”
1 John 4:9-10
“In this was
manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten
Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we
loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for
our sins.”
1 John 4:19
“We love him, because
he first loved us.”
His love is already there. We don’t
have to earn it. We do not have to bribe Him to love us.
You are valuable to God. If He
had a refrigerator your picture would be on it. If he had a wallet, your
picture would be in it. He doesn’t need a refrigerator or a wallet. He has your
picture embedded in His mind. He knows your name. He knows where you live. He
loves you! Can you love Him back?
1 Corinthians 1:26-31
“For ye see your
calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty,
not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world
to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to
confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things
which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to
nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him
are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness,
and sanctification, and redemption: That, according as it is written, He that
glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.”
God must get all the glory. As
our lifestyle, our very beings, begin to worship Him and please Him in
everything we do, we will experience different emotions. Sometimes we cry and
cry and cry. This is an act of worship.
Psalms 34:18
“The Lord is nigh
unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.”
God can use our brokenness to
minister to someone else. We may not feel completely healed ourselves when He
leads us to reach out to someone else. We feel their pain, we cry with them. We
offer them the littlest ray of hope that we can find and in doing so we have
worshipped God.
2 Corinthians 4:17
“For our light
affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory.”
It seems our trials last more
than a moment to us. Sometimes we have to have afflictions to turn our focus
back to God. He wants us to lean on Him, depend on Him and to trust Him. When
everything is doing good we tend to draw away from Him. Afflictions and trials
draw us back to Him. Did you realize that when we ask for God’s help we are
worshipping Him?
Matthew 8:2
“And, behold, there
came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me
clean.”
God wants us to need Him. He
wants us to ask for His help. When we express our need to Him we are expressing
trust in Him to meet that need and that is worship to Him.
