What is true worship?
As a child growing
up at the Midway Church of Christ (Holiness) U.S.A. in Folsom, LA, under
the then leadership of my father and pastor, Bishop Vernon E.
Kennebrew, I was introduced to the term worship. My father regularly read Psalm 96:9
in our evening services: "O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness:
fear before him, all the earth" (KJV). The Book of Psalms is filled
with hundreds of poetic anthems used in the religious celebrations of
the children of Israel that clearly instructed them (and us) how to
worship God. Yet, even though I heard the word worship in conversation, testimonies, songs, and Scripture, I didn't completely understand what it meant.
The Priority of Worship
Worship is not the slow song that the choir sings. Worship is not the
amount you place in the offering basket. Worship is not volunteering in
children's church. Yes, these may be acts or expressions of worship, but
they do not define what true worship really is. There are numerous
definitions of the word worship. Yet, one in particular encapsulates the priority we should give to worship as a spiritual discipline: Worship is to honor with extravagant love and extreme submission (Webster's Dictionary,1828).
True worship, in other words, is defined by the priority we place on who God is in our lives and where
God is on our list of priorities. True worship is a matter of the heart
expressed through a lifestyle of holiness. Thus, if your lifestyle does
not express the beauty of holiness through an extravagant or
exaggerated love for God, and you do not live in extreme or excessive
submission to God, then I invite you to make worship a non-negotiable
priority in your life.
We worship God because he is God. Period. Our extravagant love and
extreme submission to the Holy One flows out of the reality that God
loved us first. It is highly appropriate to thank God for all
the things he has done for us. However, true worship is shallow if it is
solely an acknowledgement of God's wealth. Psalm 96:5-6
says, "For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the LORD made the
heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and glory are in
his sanctuary." In other words, our worship must be toward the one who
is worthy simply because of his identity as the Omnipotent, Omniscient,
and Omnipresent One, and not just because God is wealthy and able to
meet our needs and answer our prayers. We must focus our practice of
worship on the worthiness of God and not his wealthiness.
The Person We Worship
Think about this: Would you continue to worship God if, from this day
forward, God's miraculous signs and wonders were not so profoundly
evident in your life? Would God still be worthy of your worship? Or is
your worship completely dependent upon the abundance of God's blessings
upon your life? Do you only worship God for what he can do for you?
Reff:
No comments:
Post a Comment