Living in Worship

Molweni (Good day)

One Sunday Arno said something about how we might have distorted what worship is. He made the comment in passing but I sensed his conviction and this encouraged me to go back and explore what God says in His Word about worship. We all know that worship is more than just singing not that it is not one of the ways but what does He say.

“Discovering knowledge through exploration is a lifelong journey” that is my most favourite quote. And discovering more and more of who God is and how He relates to us through exploring His Word is even a better experience. So I went and searched His Word to find out what He says. The study bible I use records 161 mentions of the word worship in His Word. No we won't go through all of them but a few stood out to me and I would like us to chew on them in this week.

The first time a person is recorded saying “I will go and worship” is in Genesis 22. This is the chapter that tells us the story of Abraham asked to sacrifice his son.
He says to the servant he and his son will go and worship. In this passage of scripture I learnt from Abraham that worship involves sacrificing. Sacrificing what we hold most important and love. Worship is holding God most important and loving Him more than anything else. Abraham teaches us that worship is completely dying to self and submitting to our Father without reservation. Living in  worship of God we can't have things more important than Him.

When his son asks him where is the lamb Abraham says “God will provide”. I wonder for Abraham was human did he think God would make Sarah bear him another son or did he believe God would provide a lamb as He did. The lesson I learnt from Abraham is that worship is trusting the Lord. Trusting that in what He has asked us to do He has provided a way.

One other passage passage that stood out  is Romans 12. In this passage God urges, beseeches, begs us to present our lives, who we are, as living sacrifices and this He says, is our spiritual act of worship. Once again worship involves sacrificing self.

Our Father then continues to say that we should renew our minds through His Word so that the selfish, me first and God last patterns of this world we would not conform to. But be transformed into His image. For His sacrifice can never be matched but as we sacrificially live in submission to the Father just as Christ did we also glorify and worship the Father as Christ did.