Worship

A friend just recently emailed me asking my opinions about worship. After doing a bit of study on it, here's what I came up with.

Worship. I've had a few talks with people in the past about worship, and have heard different ideas mentioned here and there but not much. So I will just give you my thoughts on it and maybe have a look at a couple of bible passages to see what they say. (I thought I may as well do a bit of a study on it now that I'm thinking about it). I have no idea how this is gona look when I'm done but here goes :-) A couple of definitions of worship are:
a. The reverent love and devotion accorded a deity, an idol, or a sacred object.
b. The ceremonies, prayers, or other religious forms by which this love is expressed. The definition doesn't really cover worship in terms of worshiping God, but it does express the emotions or attitudes that I would want to associate with worshiping God. If we compare the above definition to that of praise... Praise:
1. Expression of approval, commendation, or admiration.
2. The extolling or exaltation of a deity, ruler, or hero.
This gives me the impression that praise is more talking about the voicing of approval,admiration etc whereas worship goes deeper, involving our emotions and attitudes.
Kinda gives me an understanding why singing in church is called praise AND worship..

To me, worship is primarily thanking God. It is also a way of submitting to God and his will, and showing our willingness to follow him and do our best to keep his laws and commands. As the definintion says, its a way of expressing our love, reverance, and devotion to THE deity, or deus(God) not A deity or idol/sacred object. The important thing for me that makes worship what it is, is the attitude that goes with it. In the bible, worship is often associated with offerings or gifts (1 Ch 16:29), this speaks to me of sacrifice or giving something up. In fact in Romans 12:1, it says "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship." Another thing associated with worship is bowing down, or kneeling (Ps 95:6). John 4:24 says: "God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth."
These passages give me the impression people who are submitting to God, and want to serve him. Those who worship him must also be sincere in their worship as the passage from John indicates. This is definitly the kind of attitude that I would want when worshiping God.

The reason I say that thanking God is the primary purpose of worship is because of WHY we worship. We worship God for a few reasons;
1) Because he created us. In my mind thats a pretty obvious reason to worship him, because without him we wouldn't even BE here! I've heard that said enough about my parents, but with reference to God it means a bit more, because he also created our parents, and our parents parents etc etc. But more than just causing us to be here, He actually designed each and every one of us (I can't actually comprehend the idea, but I do understand that its a BIG thing) and on top of that, he designed and created a whole world for our benefit. Complete with monkeys, tigers, and the elephant shrew (quite a funny looking animal).
2) He's super cool. I don't know about you, but I can't think of any other beings in existence that are actually THREE beings, but still one... Having that kinda skill has got to be worth something!
3) He's top-dog. From my personal experience, God rules the roost (or universe, if you wana be picky) and basically controls and has an involvement in everything. (I'm not saying he causes everything, thats a different topic really).
4) Probably the other biggest reason besides (1) is the fact that he saved our collective asses by sending Jesus Christ. He not only creates us, but when we set ourselves on a collision course with oblivion, he sends his ONE and ONLY son to die on a cross to redeem us. I can't really think of much worse than sending your own son away, and then watching him die. (Good thing he's all powerful and can bring people back to life). To think that God, who lacks nothing, chose to sacrifice so much just to save a bunch of rebellious, hypocritical lowdowns blows my mind.



Different ways of worship. Well, to in my opinion, there are heaps and heaps of ways to worship. Singing in church is probably the most obvious ones. Prayer is a big one, and I don't just mean going to prayer meetings! Prayer can be done at any time, about anything. An example from my life is thanking God for an amazing sunrise in the morning when I see it from work (about the only time I'm ever up early enough to see it..), or for my friends, my family, or when I dedicate my life to him again thanking him for redeeming me, anything really.

A conclusion I've just come to while writing this, is that worshipping God can be done in the way you live your life. If you are trying to live a life that is pleasing to God, for example trying to carry out his will and to be more like Jesus and you are doing so with a sincere heart, that is worship too. Because doing so will involve sacrifice, a 'bowing down' of sorts as you submit to his will. It will also require devotion, and love! Love born of knowledge of what Christ did for us and who he is. Love is an amazing motivator, and what better way to express such a love than to live your life in a way that God would want.

I think thats me... Hope it wasn't too confusing. Felt like I went on a bit of a tangent every now and again.
What are your thoughts on worship? Feel free to leave comments with you ideas...