By David Faust
If you randomly survey 1,000 people, how many of them do you suppose would say, “Worshiping God is a high priority in my life”?
Our word worship comes from the Old English “worth-ship.” It’s an indicator of what we value, prioritize, and consider worthwhile. Judging by the daily news and social media, the main issues worth our attention are money, entertainment, politics, employment, health and safety, sports, weather, and cultural debates. But what about the Lord? How can we make worshiping God a priority—and a way of life?
In Revelation chapter four, John peered inside heaven’s door and beheld an astonishing scene. What he saw should impact the way we worship the Lord.
What Worship Isn’t
Worship isn’t a spectator sport for passive onlookers. It’s a participatory activity that engages our minds, hearts, and bodies in praising God. John was fully engaged. He “looked,” he “heard,” and he was personally “in the Spirit” (Revelation 4:1-2).
Worship is not a Sunday-only activity. John’s grand vision came to him “on the Lord’s day” (Revelation 1:10), but the things he saw and wrote about are relevant every day of the week. Worshiping God should be a way of life where we honor and serve him in all of our activities, doing it all “for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).
Worship is far more than going through the motions, fulfilling religious customs, and critiquing sermons and songs based on our personal preferences. In fact, it’s not primarily about us at all. It’s about praising “the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come” (Revelation 4:8).
True worship isn’t boring! John surely didn’t yawn with indifference when he gazed inside heaven’s door. The scene apparently engaged his senses, challenged his intellect, and stirred his emotions. He heard thunder rumbling and voices praising God. He saw brilliant colors, “a sea of glass, clear as crystal” (v. 6), and mysterious angelic beings whose appearance boggled the mind.
Contrary to a common misunderstanding in today’s church, worship isn’t mainly about music. However, the longest book in the Bible is a songbook, so it’s fitting to praise the Lord and “extol him with music and song” (Psalm 95:2).
Worship is more than listening to a preacher talk. Timothy was supposed to devote himself to “the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and teaching” (1 Timothy 4:13), but his job also included guiding others to pray and revere “God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light” (1 Timothy 2:1-2, 2:8, 6:15-16).
Rearranging Our Priorities
The first of the Ten Commandments says, “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). Worship compels us to lay aside our idols, release our attachment to this world and its fleeting distractions, and seek God and his kingdom first.
The Lord watches over all our “coming and going” (Psalm 121:8), so we can worship him anytime, anywhere—at home, work, and school. Whether alone outdoors or joining with hundreds of others in a building designed for worship, we can fall down before our Creator and declare, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being” (Revelation 4:11).
Personal Challenge:
During a typical day, how often do you remember to worship God? What steps could you take to make worship a more consistent part of your daily life?
Dave,
Thanks so much for your article on Worship. I think our churches spend so much time teaching what to do to become a Christian but very little time on what it means to worship after we become Christ-followers. We teach on things to do as a Christian. And I’m not sure that really reveals what worship truly is. We all worship. It’s what or whom we worship that makes us different then the rest of the world.
If worship is truly a lifestyle, then our worship is not found in the extra things we do, like, listening to Christian music, or reading the Bible more, both of which are great and should be done anyway. If it’s truly a lifestyle then it means that everything we do, our work, our play, our going out to eat, the time we spend shopping, everything we do should be considered worship. Because it’s all the Lord’s and when we remember that in even the little monotonous things we do, to the times that we are on a mountaintop and see the grand handiwork of our God, all of that is worship.
I think creating a list of things we can do to worship is fine, but it is only a small part of what worship is.
Articles like this are fine, helpful, and greatly needed. But what we really need is for preachers to preach on worship.
John
Well said Bwana Mkubwa
Mazel Tov. Mazel Tov.