A lifestyle not an event…
One of the things I love to do and have spoken of often, is leading others in worship. It involves a lot of things that I enjoy; music, playing the guitar, singing, and most important, praising, honoring, worshiping my God and King and Creator and Deliverer and Supplier and Comforter and Friend, my Future and my Present and the one who knew me before this world was even made!
I get excited when I think about all that God has done for me, there is a history there, a list of milestones, and that excitement is what drives me the most to share with others the other things listed before. I get excited when thinking about what God is going to do in the future, not just the heaven kind of future but the next week future where his plans lead me. But that excitement is not limited to the day where I get to play, where I get to sing, where I get to make music. That excitement is with me through out the week, that excitement drives me to do other things that are not on the list of things that I enjoy, and not because of what they are but who I am doing them for.
Romans 12:
Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering.
Worship is expressing your love to God, your adoration to God, your reverence to God and in reality it is and should be a personal thing. Because of what God has done, because He first loved you, because He called to you and you answered, because you answered His call and your life was forever changed, it is a relationship that was pursued by God and your automatic and uncontrollable response is worship.
A W Tozer said in (The Pursuit of God), “we can meet this successfully only by the exercise of an aggressive faith. We must offer all our acts to God and believe that He accepts them. Then hold firmly to that position and keep insisting that every act of every hour of the day and night be included in the transaction. Keep reminding God in our times of private prayer that we mean every act for His glory; then supplement those times by a thousand thought-prayers as we go about the job of living.”
The misconception: worship is songs, singing, the thing you do at church. It is that but so much more, so much more. It is being alone with the Bible listening for God to speak to you, it is the time spent alone talking to God and listening for Him to speak to you, it is the reaching out to someone less fortunate than you and letting the love of God shine through you, it is giving to others, your church and supporting the ministry that ministers to you, it is hearing the word of God spoken (preached) and listening for God’s voice, it is working with honor and diligence at your job and doing it as unto the Lord, it is being with your family and taking your role in it seriously and letting God work through you there.
Romans 12:
9-10Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.
11-13Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality.
14-16Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they’re happy; share tears when they’re down. Get along with each other; don’t be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don’t be the great somebody.
17-19Don’t hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you’ve got it in you, get along with everybody. Don’t insist on getting even; that’s not for you to do. “I’ll do the judging,” says God. “I’ll take care of it.”
20-21Our Scriptures tell us that if you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if he’s thirsty, get him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness. Don’t let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good.
Worship is truly not something you go to church to do, it is something you are doing already when it is time to go to church. It is something you are already doing as you walk through the doors of church. Then when the music starts and the person on stage says” let’s praise our God” you add what you have already been doing to other voices in the crowd. I will admit, that is SOMETHING! When a group of people let go of the earthly realm and reach into God it gets intense, but inevitably it is a culmination of everything that has gone on through the week.
One of my favorite Psalms is this:
Psalms 46-10,11
10 “Be still, and know that I am God!
I will be honored by every nation.
I will be honored throughout the world.”
11 The Lord of Heaven’s Armies is here among us;
the God of Israel is our fortress.
Be still before the Lord, live your life in worship to the Lord, because worship is
A lifestyle not an event…..
