This week Janine speaks about the what, why and how of worship as we continue the series devoted to Family Church Values. Janine began by looking for a single verse about worship in scripture, but there are 188 references to worship and 259 references to praise in the Bible! Reading her Bible she looked at verses saying….’He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak’….’The Lord is the Everlasting’….’ God, the creator of the heavens and the Earth’. Reflecting, she naturally found herself wanting to respond and worship. The more she read, the more she was filled with awe and the more she just wanted to respond in thankfulness to God. When reading about His greatness, His goodness, His majesty, His love for his, how could we not want to respond in worship?
When we love God and know God and his love for us, it fills us with awe. Our natural desire is to show him our love. How do we show him? Our love is our worship. For example it’s the difference between being in love with someone and showing them we love them. We show our love for God through our life, our actions, our obedience, our thoughts and our words.
God has called us to do better things and to be set apart. Because of that we say yes God. It's not just about singing. It's not about us coming together religiously. Our obedience is worship. When we choose to express our love for him every day of our life, we are living a life of worship.
Romans 12:1 (NIV) says “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”. So, this is an everyday thing, not a Sunday thing.
Janine spoke of personal circumstances in her own family where relatives were ill; her heart sank at the sad news. Her response was to worship God. When we open our mouths to worship, our focus shifts to Jesus (above the sound of anxiety and fear). We speak bold prayers, we declare God’s promises, our faith builds and our soul is brought into alignment with what God says over us and our situation. So even though worship is for Him, is to Him and is about him, it also speaks life over us and our situation.
We worship because He is good and He is good all the time. It's not about how we feel. It's about God. We will not choose to be passive in the presence of King Jesus. We will not be holding back on the one who gave us life, who gave us everything. What it looks like is not significant, its gratitude and thankfulness in our hearts that matter. Let us focus on Jesus, engage our hearts and lift Him up.
