We are living in a christian culture that is saturated with worship. Look around… There is a whole industry built around “worship”. This includes worship record labels, worship artists, worship albums, books on the topic of worship, worship DVDs, worship conferences, etc. But in the midst of all of it, what does it mean to offer to God acceptable worship? If we’re not careful, we can actually lose sight of the one we are supposed to be worshiping. We can get so caught up in the events and activities of worship that we forget what it actually means to live a life of worship to God.
What happens when we reduce worship to being just an event or genre of music? We will no longer view our lives or daily activities as worship to God. We will feel justified before God because of our “worship” time on Sunday morning, but then live the rest of the week as a non-worshipper of the God we just sang about. But the Bible shows us that the worship of God is not an isolated event, rather it is the whole of one’s life.
So we must stop and ask God what kind of worship he actually desires from us!
We see in scripture that God cares about the heart behind what we do! God not only desires the praises of our mouths, but also a heart and lifestyle that reflects those praises. Even the best sacrifice apart from an obedient heart brings nothing.
1 Samuel 15:22, “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,and to listen than the fat of rams.”
Matthew 15:8 Jesus quotes Isaiah 29 when speaking to the pharisees “This people honors Me with their lips; But their heart is far from Me.”
I think that maybe the best verse for us regarding living a life of worship is Romans 12:1, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”
Think about the implications of that kind of worship that Paul talks about in Romans 12.
Our response to the God of the universe showing us mercy while we were sinners, should be us willingly offering our lives. That means my heart, mind, body, and soul! This, and this alone, is the worship that is holy and acceptable to God! This isn’t cheap artificial worship, this is spiritual worship. Costly worship. If we can grasp this one verse, it will radically change how we view our worship to God.
So let me ask, how would our lives be different if we viewed EVERYTHING we did as an act of worship to God? Think about it…This would change how we treat the ‘hard to love’ person, because we would love them as an act of worship to God. This would change how we view our job, because we would be doing it as an act of worship to God. This would keep us from indulging in sin, because we would view our life as an act of worship to God.
I pray that we more fully understand what it means to live a life of worship to God! That we take to heart Romans 12:1 and fully offer ourselves to the one who gave us everything.
Brian Ortize
Reality LA music ministry pastor
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