Worship #1 – Loving God through Worship

I played racquetball with a guy recently who believed in following Jesus’ Golden Rule – “Do to others what you would have them do to you” (Matthew 7:12). He felt that this ideal was the essential expression of all religions.

As I thought about this I realized that, while following the Golden Rule is important, Jesus also gave an even higher command: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30).

Every Christ follower has an built-in desire to love God with all their passion and prayer and intelligence and energy.

One way we express our love to God is through our worship. Some have said that at the base of every religion is the desire to worship. Within the human heart is the longing to worship Someone or Something beyond ourselves.

Yet God alone is worthy of our worship. And we worship God in truth – in harmony with what God has revealed about himself in the Word of God.

God is the Creator; we are the created. Jesus is our Master; we are his disciples.

We worship God for his mercy and love, his sovereignty and holiness, his greatness and his saving acts. We refuse to worship other “gods” of reputation, success, wealth, possessions, power, or pleasure.

I’ve always appreciated William Temple’s classic description of worship. Worship is:

• The quickening of the conscience by God’s holiness.

• The nourishing of the mind with his truth.

• The purifying of the imagination by his beauty.

• The opening of the heart to his love.

• The surrender of the will to his purpose.

All these are gathered up in our adoration, our reverence, our awe, our wonder of God,

Jeanne Guyon was a Christian in France who was imprisoned from 1695 to 1703 after publishing A Short and Very Easy Method of Prayer. One biographer said that her sole crime was that of loving God. Her offense was her supreme devotion and unmeasured attachment to Christ.

I wonder if there would be enough evidence in our lives to be convicted for loving God as expressed through our worship?

Our prayer: “Lord, make me a worshiper of you.”

~ Pastor Dave