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Worship — What Do We Mean By It? |
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Article by Tom Gilbert
The
act of loving God with our whole mind, body and spirit is true
worship. How we go about this is demonstrated in our actions.
You don't have to be in church to worship. You can worship
there. You should. But your worship should go beyond this.
The English origin of the word "worship" comes from the
Anglo-Saxon "worth-ship", meaning "declaring
worth". That's interesting, isn't? When you gather with
others to worship, be it one other believer or a building full,
you are there declaring the worth of your belief.
Does it seem that many are caught up in the appearance of worship
without the real substance? Critics of religion like to point
to the hypocrisy they see in those who profess God through their
religious observance and fail to live up to the standards of
their faith. This is unfortunate, but I can relate because I
once felt this way.
When I was a teenager I encountered God at a prayer meeting. At first
I was excited and enthused. Later I became discouraged. It all
seemed to be based in emotion. "These people were just
fooling themselves," I thought. They were whipping themselves
up into frenzy and becoming convinced it was real.
Well, it is real---God, our separation, and His way of paying the
price for us. I couldn't see it then. It took more self-centered
living and suffering from the consequences before I could accept
the truth. I totally missed the point that it is not about a
set of rules and rituals. It's about a relationship--a personal
one between God and me. This is fundamental and true for all
of us.
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How should we worship?
I
think it starts with opening our heart to a big loving God and
expressing deep, heartfelt gratitude. God could have made us
with free will and then when we rejected Him and chose to run
our own lives He could have just left it at that. Fine. On your
own. Good luck.
Well, He didn't do that. He sent Jesus, God in human form, to bring
us back. God never gave up on us. He decided on a plan to reconcile
our imperfect (sinful) nature with His perfection. He built
a bridge. That deserves some gratitude on our part.
Worship should also mean a time of fellowship, teaching, learning and
praise.
If we don't have the above then what are we left with? Ignorance.
Ingratitude. Self-centeredness. There is way too much of that
in the world already.
If you attend a worship service your participation will declare
the worth of your beliefs. It requires a complete occupation
of your mind and soul with God. It's a deliberate focusing of
our thoughts and feelings on God. The rewards of that are inspiration
and inner joy. We are filled with the Spirit. Our sense of wonder
and awe should be great.
Philip Yancey put it so well in an interview with Zondervan
Publishing. He said "Church exists primarily not to provide
entertainment or to encourage vulnerability or to build self-esteem
or to facilitate friendships but to worship God; if it fails
in that, it fails."
Our worship must be only of God. Idolatry is forbidden and that
doesn't just mean worshipping some other "mystical"
deity. Whatever we put first, before God is an idol. It can
be sex, money, prestige, other people or our self. That is the
way to ruin.
Get on the high road and worship in truth and love.
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Scripture taken from the Holy Bible,
NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®.Copyright © 1973, 1978,
1984 International Bible Society. All rights reserved throughout
the world. Used by permission of International Bible Society.
NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® and NIV® are registered trademarks
of International Bible Society. Use of either trademark for
the offering of goods or services requires the prior written
consent of International Bible Society.
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible,
New Living Translation, copyright ©1996. Used by permission
of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189, USA. All
rights reserved.
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