How many of you would call yourself a worshipper? I think of myself as a wife, a mother, a grandmother, a Life Coach, even a Bible Study teacher and I do spend time worshipping God most Sunday mornings, but am I a worshipper?
Yes, I believe that we are all worshippers. Every day, in all that we do we are giving our worship to someone or something. God created us to worship.
WORSHIP - IS OUR RESPONSE TO WHAT WE VALUE MOST.
If my husband were to ask me if I would like to spend the day going to Home Depot with him and one of my friends asked me to spend the morning antique shopping it would be a no brainer for me. I would choose antique shopping as I absolutely dislike going to home improvement stores. This answer would be different for everyone… you might want to spend your time reading a book or going out for a 10 mile bike ride…but…
EVERYONE WORSHIPS SOMETHING.
Worship isn’t just something that Christians do. Some of the worship experiences might take time for instance at the local college stadium and they do not have one reference to God. Show up at a UCF football game and the folks are cheering for their teams, hands raised in the air and praising the plays and the players. It is worship for these die hard fans. And the worship doesn’t end when the game is over… it will continue at their homes with a post game party. Even before the games they are all decked out in their team colors. You get the picture!
Everyone is worshiping something. If you have a hard time discerning what it is that you are worshipping just follow the trail of your time, your money, or the priorities that you set in your life. I guarantee that it will lead you to what it is that you worship. Most of us would deny ie: that we worship golfing, but if it has become all consuming for you chances are it is what you worship.
In Matthew 6: 19-21 Jesus warns us about giving ourselves to worshipping other things…
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”.
Read it slowly again.. For wherever your treasure is, whatever your treasure is, whoever your treasure is, there your heart will be. Your heart follows your treasure. The question I ask then is what do you treasure?
We can say that we worship God but are really doing so?
“These people come near to me with their mouth and honorme with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.” Isaiah 29:13
How many times do we really worship God out of a sense of obligation, but not from our hearts? We can go to church or whisper a quick prayer, but if we are in fact a million miles away from God then He alone sees our hearts and knows our motives. This can happen to any one of us … we sit down to have some time alone with God, but our minds are on our list of “things to do” and this is just something that we know that we should do so that we can cross it off the list.
The problem I believe is that if our hearts are mostly in the “going through the motions of worship” stage for too long then we actually run the risk of letting the things we worship, the relationships or activities that we worship take the place of God in our lives
Psalm 115: 4-8 “their idols are made of silver and gold, made by hands of men. They have mouths but they cannot speak, they have ears but cannot hear, noses but cannot smell, they have hands, but cannot feel, feet but cannot walk; nor can they utter a sound with their throats. Those who make them will be like them and so will all those who trust them.” Psalms 115: 4-8.
WE BECOME WHAT WE WORSHIP.
What we worship can determine the priorities of our life. Every day we choose what will get first place in our life. And you can always tell what somebody worships by their actions… not by their words. I went through a stage in my life when I was anorexic and all I thought about was what I would not eat and how much I needed to exercise. I would have told you that I worshipped God and I did on Sunday mornings, but my true focus was on my appearanc and hitting the right number on the scale. My priorities were definitely not in the right order.
How about you? What are the priorities in your life right now? Where does God rank in your life? Is worship something that you do only on Sunday mornings? Is worshipping God something that you only do on Easter and Christmas?
If so, I will tell you this…He’s asking for more! He doesn’t just want your Sunday mornings or a quick prayer when you have something urgent going on…He wants all of you and He deserves it!
Read the lyrics to this song by Chris Tomlin:” The title of ths song is “Indescribable.
From the highest of heights to the depths of the sea
Creation's revealing Your majesty
From the colors of fall to the fragrance of spring
Every creature unique in the song that it sings
All exclaiming
Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.
You are amazing God
All powerful, untameable,
Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing God
Who has told every lightning bolt where it should go
Or seen heavenly storehouses laden with snow
Who imagined the sun and gives source to its light
Yet conceals it to bring us the coolness of night
None can fathom
Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name
You are amazing God
All powerful, untameable,
Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing God
You are amazing God
Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.
You are amazing God
All powerful, untameable,
Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing God
Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.
You are amazing God
Incomparable, unchangeable
You see the depths of my heart and You love me the same
You are amazing God
You are amazing God
It’s hard to fathom that He placed “the stars in the sky and named them one by one” or that He placed every lightning bolt where it should go. But His greatest gift to mankind wasn’t that He knows all of the stars by name… it is that he came to save me and to save you. He came to seek and save the lost.
The Bible tells us in Romans 12:1 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship
REAL WORSHIP IS OFFERING YOUR WHOLE LIFE.
We cannot separate our worship of God from our everyday life. We need to do all that we do in our daily lives for the glory of God. We need to give Him thanks in all things and to have an attitude of gratitude.
What’s worshiping with your whole life look like for you?
Every aspect of our lives should point back to God! And we should be looking for Him in every aspect of our everyday life. Look to give Him the glory in all that you do! My husband is legally blind and has a 93% hearing loss and has had to overcome some very serious obstacles in his life. He has however had a very successful career as a Computer Programmer. He never fails to give God all of the credit and all of the glory. Never have I heard him take credit for all that he has been able to accomplish. He is always grateful for how God has blessed him.
My challenge for you and for me is to look for the ways that we can include God in every corner of our lives. As you begin your day let the words to this song start your day: “Here I am to worship, Here I am to bow down …Here I am to say you’re my God.”