Hello and welcome to Motivation Monday. Over the last several weeks we have been doing a study entitled, “Becoming Like Christ.” In this study, we have been looking at the spiritual disciplines that help up grow and mature into the person of Jesus Christ. This week we will continue in that study as we look at the discipline of worship. Thanks for joining us this week and without further ado, let’s dive in!
Just like with prayer, it is impossible to write about the discipline of worship in one blog post. Just the word worship alone conjures up a variety of thoughts and images. Think about it for a moment. Worship is the central activity of every persons existence. Worship is giving your affections away to someone or something; another way of saying it is that everyone will worship someone or something! You may read this and think there is nothing else I worship but God alone. But do you really? As sinful humans we are always looking for our next “golden calf” to worship. Now, we may not seek out other things to worship, but anything that we place ahead of our worship to God alone, is the worship of the “golden calf.” To worship God means to ascribe the proper worth to God, to magnify His worthiness of praise, to approach and address God as He is worthy.
Think for just a moment how we treat God when we come to Sunday “worship.” We say that we come to worship Him, but yet too many times we get bored if the music doesn’t move us or stir up our feelings in the way we like. We get distracted while listening to the preacher share from God’s Word instead of worshipping God through His Word and instead of treating God as the guest of honor, we somehow neglect the One we are gathered together to worship. Jesus says in Matthew 4:10 that we are to “Worship the Lord your God.” But sometimes we worship God in vain. Jesus also says in Matthew 15:8-9, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. They worship me in vain…” God still called this worship, but it was in vain. So, how can we worship God without worshiping Him in vain? By practicing the spiritual discipline of worship, we will learn to pursue Christlikeness and worship Him in spirit and in truth.
Philip Nation again in his book, “Habits For Our Holiness” says about worship, “Worship as a spiritual discipline focuses our hearts affections fully on our Lord. It is a declaration from our hearts, lips and actions. It is also a rejection as well: when we worship God, we say to everything else, ‘You are not God.’”
In Psalms 95 and 96, David shows us just how intensely personal worship is. David show us that worship is from the heart! Worship should draw our hearts closer to God. Worship is an opportunity for an unbelieving world to look over our shoulders and see the celebration of the gospel. Worship is what our lives ought to be – a dynamic, everlasting celebration of God.
In Revelation, we see what true worship is. In Revelation 4:8, we read of four creatures around the throne who worship God day and night without ceasing saying, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God, the Almighty, who was, who is, and who is to come.” Then in Revelation 5, we read about thousands and thousands of angels, elders and living creatures around the throne crying out with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” Then in the very next verse we see that worship follows from every creature saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” (Revelation 5:13)
The more we focus on God, the more we will appreciate and understand His infinite worth. To worship God rightly takes a great amount of discipline. Without discipline, our worship to God would be very thin and inconsistent. May our worship reflect David’s heart of worship in Psalms 95 and 96 every single day. Worship is not meant to be a one day a week experience! Worship is an everyday, every minute experience. There is so much more about worship that I would like to say, but I will save it for another day, another blog.
Today, take a moment and read Psalms 95 and 96. Focus on David’s words and may his words become your hearts cry today. A.W. Tozer said, “I can safely say, on the authority of all that is revealed in the Word of God, that any man or woman on this earth who is bored and turned off by worship is not ready for heaven.”
Someday worship will be an integral part of our everyday existence. It will not be an activity that comes from faith, pastors, worship leaders, or duty, but will be a natural response that arises from the first-hand experience with the living God. Thanks for reading and have a blessed week. We’ll see you next week as we take a look the Spiritual Discipline of Evangelism.
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