We were created to worship God. That is our overarching purpose in life. This is what we are called to do. But we often lose sight of what true worship means, or don’t really understand what worship is. Worship isn’t just singing songs on Sunday mornings or in you car. And although singing unto the Lord is worship, that is a small piece of the worship pie.
Worship has zero to do with us and everything to do with him. We are called to come before him to honor him because he is king. We are to sit at his feet and pour out our love, devotion and adoration without expectation. We don’t worship to get something out of it or have an experience, we worship to glorify him, our God and Savior. We lose sight of that. We seem to think it is about us.
Sometimes we can get consumed by Sunday morning worship. We want the feels and emotion. We make it about us. “I got so much out of worship today…..” it isn’t about you!
Worship encumbers our whole life. Our talk should be an act of worship. Is it coarse, harsh or crude? Do we honor God in how we communicate? Our attitude should be an act of worship. We need to constantly examine our heart. How we treat one another is worship. Are we glorifying God in our interactions with one another? Are we behaving in a way and using our bodies that would exult him? Are our thoughts pleasing to him? Are lives are to be a holy. This is our true and proper worship.
We pick apart the songs, the lyrics, the instruments, even the singers and in self-righteous conviction we fail to really worship God.
Look, I agree one hundred percent that we should guard the sanctuary of worship. We need to be watchmen on the wall ensuring a Biblical purity in every song offered to the Lord. I believe that wholeheartedly. Please don’t hear me wrong.
But we also need to be mindful of presenting our bodies as holy, living sacrifices unto the Lord. Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.
We can get caught up in a lot of causes. Good causes. Worthy causes. Things that are necessary in honoring a holy and righteous God. But we can easily lose ourselves in our pursuits and forget that true, and proper worship begins with every part of us.
Are we examining ourselves and running our lives through that holy grid of scrutiny to ensure purity and true worship? Is our first concern the song rather than those blackened areas of our heart? Do we hold ourselves to the same standard we hold everyone else, and anything else? We need to start with the reflection in the mirror.
Worship is what we were made to do. It is vital to the walk of the believer. It must honor and please the Lord in all ways. All forms of worship must be examined. All songs and authors need to be considered. But we cannot overlook ourselves. We cannot place an urgency on worship and yet neglect our bodies, lifestyles, choices and how we are living because that is our true worship.
The alter must be guarded. The pulpit must be protected. But we also need to guard every aspect of our lives. Examine yourself.