With Christmas behind us, and a new year approaching, I feel that this topic is important for us to discuss. Worship is described as “The reverent love and devotion accorded to a deity, an idol, or a sacred object.” This definition fits perfectly into the question I am presenting today: What do you worship?
As people of faith, we are of course going to respond that we worship God. That being said, how accurate is this statement? If we look back at the definition, it states that worshipping is an act of love and devotion. Having a love and devoting yourself to that love means spending time, resources, and showing what you love, how much you love it. If we claim to worship God, how often do we do these things? I sometimes find myself spending too much time with worldly possessions and not enough time in the presence of my Creator. It can be hard to lay these things down and to not be distracted by them. That being said, does God deserve for us to give Him time? God deserves our devotion of time and all the love we have to give. Our worldly possessions can wait. So how do we worship God?
Worshipping God isn’t going to church and singing songs of praise to Him for 15 minutes and calling it a week. It is actively living a life like His Son Jesus and spending time in His word, in prayer, and in sharing Him with others. I am not making this post to shame anyone, I have struggled with this myself. Every day, we must take the time to worship God and show how much we love and are devoted to Him. If you don’t know exactly what to do in order to achieve this, here are some ideas!
The first way that we can achieve this is spending time in His word. This is the perfect time to start a new Bible reading plan. The new year is approaching and finding a 365 day plan through YouVersion or through a physical copy is a great start! Taking notes over your plan can help you maintain what you read while also allowing you to share it with others. I am reading a 365 day devotional for men by Charles Stanley and am currently looking for one to do through YouVersion as well! I encourage you to do what fits you best.
The next way you can worship God is through prayer. Prayer isn’t just asking God for things and thanking Him for what He has given you. It is actively talking to Him and praying for others. Thanking God for what He has done for us isn’t bad by any means, however, we don’t want to use prayer only as self-fulfilling. I encourage you and challenge you to also pray out loud. This makes prayer more personal and keeps you from being as distracted.
The last way I will give today that provides worship to God is spending time in nature. Walking outside and experiencing and appreciating all that He has created and how beautiful it is shows God how appreciative and how in awe of Him we are. God often reveals Himself through His creation and it is a great way to find God while also admiring His handiwork.
To wrap this post up, I wanted to list some reasons to why worshiping God is so important. First, it is a surrender of our lives to God. This surrender comes by placing our worldly possessions to the side and giving God glory without any distractions. In doing this, we are putting our entire focus on Him. Worship is also personal sacrifice and leaving all of our feelings behind. We may be struggling, but God has never failed us nor forsaken us and He deserves the praise. Lastly, we worship because we celebrate what God has done for and through us.
I encourage you to do your best, we all struggle and this blog post is here for you to reference or share to someone who needs to hear it!
“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks.” - John 4:23
Elevate Your Faith 