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Tuesday September 14, 2015

Everyone praises, few worship.

 The Miami Heat is my favorite basketball team. When I am at a game, I find myself jumping and cheering for the team and my favorite players. I have stood and cheered at a music concert when witnessing great musical talent. I have spoken words of recognition to volunteers and staff members at the church I am privileged to lead for a job well done. This is what you call praise and everyone does it; people are praised for what they do but we worship them for who they are.

Worship goes beyond jumping, shouting, cheering, applauding, or speaking words of recognition for the successful endeavors of people. Worship is a willingness to offer sacrifice and the ultimate act of worship is sacrificing your very life for the object of your worship. There are numerous people that have done great things that I might be willing to worship them for but few for whom I would be willing to sacrifice my life.

Romans 12: 1 NIV

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

 My Act of Worship

 Before the coming and ultimate sacrifice of Jesus, the Priest would sacrifice on the altar to God an animal to atone for the sins of the people; this was a bloody messy event. Following the death of the animal, it was dismembered and burned on the altar as a final act of worship to God. Now, Paul writing to the Romans tells us that there would no longer be need for a priest to come to the altar and offer sacrifice on our behalf because of who God is and what He has done. From now on, we should come to the altar on our own and allow our lives to be consumed as our act of worship to the Lord. Obviously, He was not speaking about chopping up our bodies or burning them on the altar, He is telling us to set our lives aside and to live instead for our Heavenly Father for who He is and not just, for what He has done.

True and proper worship to God has little to do with shouting, cheering, applauding, or speaking words of recognition. True and proper worship starts when we move away from self-focused living to a God-focused way of life.

 

Heavenly Father I want to live my life as  sacrifice of love to you, Me desire is to worship you from the moment the sun rises until the sun sets and even while I sleep. Beyond words of praise I want to worship you with all my, mind, hart and soul.

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