What Do You Worship?

I’ve been thinking a lot about worship lately. The researcher in me sent me to look up the definition of worship and found these four possibilities:

1. reverence offered a divine being or supernatural power;  also : an act of expressing such reverence
2. a form of religious practice with its creed and ritual
3. extravagant respect or admiration for or devotion to an object of esteem  
4. chiefly British : a person of importance  —used as a title for various officials (such as magistrates and some mayors)

When you grow up going to church every week, you hear the word worship used often. I think many of us consider the participation of singing as our worship. Others call the entire experience a worship service. I would suggest this is where definition #2 comes into play.

And because I am not British, I won’t touch on #4. I have never heard the use of “Your Worship” except on TV or in movies. Seems a little strange as a title, but that’s the American in me.

The definition that struck me most is #3. Extravagant respect or admiration for or devotion to an object of esteem.

I DON’T KNOW IF WE ALWAYS REALIZE IT, BUT WE ALL WORSHIP SOMETHING.

Even those who don’t believe in any type of deity worship some object of esteem. What do you worship? I would prefer to ask, “Who do you worship?” but I think we need to ask both questions.

THE THING IS, EVEN CHRISTIANS DON’T ALWAYS WORSHIP GOD.

When was the last time we thought of going to church as carrying an extravagant respect or admiration for or devotion to the Lord Jesus Messiah? 

We can sing songs that praise Him and that’s a good thing. But just singing isn’t worship.

We can worship as we sing, just as we can worship as we listen to His Word or pray, and we can worship as we work or walk along the road or lie down to rest or rise up to begin a new day.

Is God the center of our focus during the every day activities of life? Do we look at the beauty of a sunrise or listen to the giggles of a child or think about the life of the elderly woman we see on the street or notice the image of Jesus in the faces of people from every tribe and tongue and people and nation and stand amazed at God’s extravagant creativity?

Do we respect the power of God in an earthquake, volcano, hurricane, thunder, and wind and see how small we are in comparison? Do we stop to think that the force behind nature’s beauty and fury is the same Creator God? He is far more powerful than we begin to give Him credit.

Like Aslan, the lion of C.S. Lewis’ stories, it was said,  

“Aslan is a lion- the Lion, the great Lion.”
“Ooh” said Susan. “I’d thought he was a man. Is he-quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion”…

“Safe?” said Mr Beaver …”Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

What or to whom do we devote our lives? One way to tell is to look at what we value most. What takes the majority of our attention? Our jobs? Our families? Ourselves? Fame? Success? Money? Sex? Love?

WE ARE ALL DEVOTED TO SOMETHING. EVEN IF WE ARE ONLY DEVOTED TO OURSELVES. 

Years ago I remember someone comparing the change in the culture’s values to the titles of its most popular magazines. Don’t quote my memory, but I believe the list went something like this:

• Life
• People
• Us
• Self

Notice the trend from community to self? It doesn’t take much looking to see that we have become a society, a world that is caught up in pursuits that promote or gratify self. It could be said that we are devoted to self. We respect and admire self-aimed thinking. We worship self.

THAT’S NOT WHAT I THINK ABOUT WHEN I’M SITTING IN A CHURCH SERVICE, BUT THE TRUTH IS, THAT ISN’T REALLY WHERE WORSHIP HAPPENS.

IT’S WHERE WORSHIPERS CAN MEET TO EXTRAVAGANTLY RESPECT GOD, BUT IF THAT SAME ATTITUDE DOESN’T FOLLOW US OUT THE DOOR, THEN WE MISS THE POINT.

A Samaritan woman asked Jesus where they were supposed to worship. Her people, the Samaritans, worshiped on a particular mountain. The Jews taught that worship was to happen in Jerusalem.

Jesus’ answer surprised her.

He said, “You Samaritans know very little about the one you worship, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes through the Jews. But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”

The Bible makes it clear that we are to worship God and God alone.

ANY OTHER TYPE OF WORSHIP – BEING DEVOTED TO ANYONE OR ANYTHING ABOVE GOD IS IDOLATRY.

Lysa TerKeurst said the other day: 

“A good heart check for today: Is my attention being held by something sacred or something secret? 

Sacred worship is all about God. 

Secret worship is all about something in this world that seems so attractive on the outside but will devour us on the inside.

And whatever is holding our attention the most is what we’re truly worshipping. 

Let’s be sure we’re worshipping God and reverencing Him above all else.

GOD WANTS OUR SPIRITS TO BE IN COMMUNICATION WITH HIS SPIRIT. WHEN WE CAN LOOK AT JESUS AS MESSIAH AND LORD WITH EXTRAVAGANT RESPECT AND ADMIRATION, THEN WE WILL UNDERSTAND WHAT TRUE WORSHIP IS SUPPOSED TO LOOK LIKE.

It’s not in the music or the sermons, though we can use those tools to show our devotion.

WORSHIP IS FOUND AT THE CORE OF WHO WE ARE AND IT IS GIVEN FROM OUR SPIRITS TO WHATEVER OBJECT WE DESIRE.

GOD IS LOOKING FOR PEOPLE WHO DESIRE HIM ABOVE ALL ELSE. WE WERE CREATED FOR GOD. IF WE ARE HONEST WITH OURSELVES, WE WILL SEE THAT OUR HEARTS LONG TO BE UNITED WITH HIM.

THE QUESTION IS, ARE WE WILLING TO DO SO?

~SELAH

#trueworship #whatdoyouworship #extravagantdevotion Personal, Musings, DevotionsJune 6, 2018