If you’ve been following along with our 31 Days of Worship and Music series, I welcome you back. If you’re new here, I would encourage you to check back with some of the previous posts in the series – but it’s not required. I have intentionally planned the series so that each day’s message builds on those before, but so that each could also stand alone. I know how life is, and I know it’s hard to get around to reading something every day. Stop by when you can…comment when you feel led…whatever you want to do. I’m just glad you’re here, and my prayer is that God speaks to something inside you somehow while you’re here.
Before we go any further in this journey of worship and music together, I want to revisit something I said in an earlier post:
Worship is ascribing worth to something – saying, in essence, “You are worthy of my attention…my affection…my adoration. You are worth everything I have to give.” The opposite of worship, then, is hatred…neglect…indifference. A complete lack of affection or care… While the word “worship” is usually associated with church culture, we really don’t have to look very far from wherever we are to find worship demonstrated for us.” (31 Days of Worship and Music, Day 2: What is Worship?)
Once we know what worship is and what it looks like, we can see it all around us every day, as we mentioned before. It’s far too easy for us to promote anything and everything to a position of importance, escalating random things of the world to a position of worth and worshiping them with our whole hearts.
While it is true that we are always worshiping something, no matter what we’re doing, we can also always be worshiping God. Everything we do can be translated as an act of worship if we approach whatever it is with an attitude that says, “I do this for Jesus. I do this because He is worthy.”
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:17)
Everything we do can be an act of worship, showing our love and dedication….observation, admiration, and imitation….of God the Father through our words and actions. In this way, we can make worship a way of life, rather than something to check off a weekend to-do list. Worship is not supposed to be something we do for an hour or so, one day a week. Worship is supposed to be something that we do with every breath of every day.
If we are at work, running copies for a demanding supervisor, we can be worshiping…or we can grumble and forget His presence in that moment.
If we are disciplining our preschooler yet again, sending her to time out for the third time in an hour, we can worship God even then, or we can yell and scream and become a victim of our own tempers.
If we are grocery shopping, pinching pennies and navigating a grocery cart through an overcrowded store, we can be worshiping, or we can become impatient and stressed and rude to everyone we pass.
Everything we do – yes, everything – can be an act of worship. That does not, however, eliminate the importance of weekend worship with a body of believers. Communal worship – whatever it looks like – is an important part of the life of faith, and tomorrow we’ll dig in to that idea even deeper. Why do we worship in a crowd of people at church? Why is that important? What does God want from that time?
I sincerely hope to see you again tomorrow. This journey is impacting me, and I hope it is doing the same for you, too.