True Worship

This past Sunday at our middle school music team practice, I led a small devotional about worship.  What is worship?  What do we tend to think worship is?

Psalm 95:6 gives us some clues.  "Oh come, let us worship and bow down.  Let us kneel before the Lord, our maker."

Worship is about honoring someone greater than ourselves.  People can sing good songs.  People can talk a good talk.  However, if our definition of worship ends at music, we've lost the crux of what God desires.  He desires that all mankind know him and be drawn to relationship with him.  God wants us to submit to Jesus, who died on a cross and rose to life to pay the penalty of our sin--separation from God.  God wants us to fellowship and rejoice in him.

Isaiah and Ezekiel state what Jesus echoed in Matthew 15:9, saying that the people worshiped him in vain; they said meaningless things that looked like worship, but their hearts were far from Jesus.  James 2 talks about how our actions demonstrate whether or not we have a relationship with Jesus.  At the end of verse 18, James states, "I will show you my faith by what I do."

Worship is how we live our lives.

God wants to know us deeply and intimately.  I read the book of Ezekiel earlier this year.  As I prayed about which book of the Bible to read next, God laid it upon my heart to reread Ezekiel.  Honestly, my heart was a bit cranky about this, but the reread was needed.  God desires true worship - lives in relationship with him.  People following his Word because they trust God's character and submit to his Lordship, not people trying to earn their own salvation, but people who truly know him.

Ezekiel further speaks of rebellious children.  As one of those rebellious children, I am aware of my need for the Savior.  Although I tend to stay away from so-called "catastrophic" sins, I am very good at acceptable sins: the sin of self-reliance, the sin of thinking that I can earn something from God, the sin of arrogance.  These exclude me from God's Kingdom, but he sent Jesus to die and raise again to cover my sins.  As Easter is near, I am reminded of my full-reliance upon the work of Christ to bring me into right relationship with God the Father.

My husband, Jeff, and I have given over a great portion of the last 15 years of our lives to the service of children through foster care.  Some came and went; three of them stayed and were adopted.  Our kiddos have struggled with various issues.  Some times are more stressful than others, but this has by far been our purest act of worship.  In the deafening chaos, I can feel God's calming presence as we persevere in our worship of him.