"We are prone to worship things. I think it's built into our DNA." -Pastor Mark Carter
This was a quote brought to my congregation in church this morning by my pastor. This isn't the first time that I've thought about worship, but what he said did remind me of many of my meditations. This will also be the first topic in what I believe will be a three-part series of posts, titled "What are you chasing?"
Worship is a funny thing. You don't have to do much to worship something, yet it requires the commitment of your life, time and energy. As the quote says, it's wired into our DNA to worship *something* though. Many worship themselves. Many worship nature, sports, careers relationships, people, the list goes on.
It seems, however, that many of us are oblivious to what we worship. We think worship involves rites and songs or weird stuff like that, but I would propose that worship is whatever you invest the majority of yourself into. It's where you direct the majority of the energy of your life, be it in thoughts, actions and emotions. And, if you look close enough, you'll realize that the rest of your life also centralizes around what you worship.
Take someone who worships their career, for example. The relationships they form may be based off of their desire to advance up the track. Or someone who worships a relationship may schedule every day of their life around another person in an attempt to spend as much time with them as they possibly can.
So what does worship of the Lord look like? If you had asked me years ago, or even on a day when I'm not really thinking, I would answer that it's singing songs, reading my Bible, and praying. Okay, that's a start, but is it all? And do you *have* to do all of these things every day to be worshiping rightly? Worship of Yahweh goes much deeper than that. It requires your life.
As Jesus says in Matthew 22:37, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." In other words, you shall love Yahweh with all of you.
Now, this isn't something that any number of Christians haven't heard before, but I hope to present a clearer explanation of what this looks like for many. Let's face it, when someone says you have to offer your life for anything, it sounds like a lot, doesn't it? The answer to this question is both yes and no. Backtracking to the beginning of this post, I have pointed out that we all worship something. One of the things about being human is the desire to invest ourselves into something, so it really doesn't have to be and isn't hard to worship.
Worshipping Yahweh means making your own plans, but being willing to change them for him. This may sound blasphemous to many, as a lot of us have heard that we should follow his plan, but I would propose that most of us actually don't know his specific plan for our lives. Sure, he may reveal it to us, but not always. As such, the way that I trust God with my life is not by sitting around waiting for him to tell me every little footstep, it's by trusting that as I'm walking, he will point out if I'm going the wrong direction and point me in the right one. But I should stress, for this to happen you must be deeply intimate with him and yourself. There have been so many instances in my life where Papa was doing his part, but I failed to hear his voice until after I had also failed to follow.
Most of all, worshiping Yahweh means remembering him. Deuteronomy 8:11, "Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God. . ." is one of the many warnings to the Israelites in the new testament not to forget their Lord, and the term "remember" in Hebrew had heavy meaning that we don't think about today. Many times, it was used to call up a covenant between the Lord and his people, and was pleaded by prophets that the Lord would remember his people when they were in bondage and turned back to him. Many times David in his psalms asks Yahweh to remember him, to see his suffering and pleading. The Lord also remembered Rachel, allowing her to conceive because of her faithfulness and pleading with Him (Genesis 30:22). Go ahead and do a BibleGateway keyword search typing in "remember" as the keyword and see how many matches show up. Read through them, and see what you learn about God's character, promises, and also what he wants you to remember.
Lastly, at least for what I can remember and include for this blog, worshipping Yahweh means chasing him and wanting him to be involved in everything that you do and think (which actually plays into remembering him). It means that when you're having a bad day, you tell him about it. Even if you can't find the words because the pain that you're experiencing is more intense than what you know how to describe, that's when you can be still and know that he is God. In other words, just sit still and allow yourself to feel what you are feeling, trusting and knowing that God understands and knows the pain. He's feeling it with you, so you don't need to find the words. And the same goes with joy; if you're so happy that you simply can't express it, let yourself sit and let it bubble and mirth around inside of you, knowing that God understands what you are grateful and feel blessed for. Or let out a shout for joy and dance! All the while remembering that it is God who has given you such blessings. Celebrating in our Lord and truly being pleased with what he has done for us is also a wonderful way to worship him. And it means when you are feeling nothing, which I think is better termed empty, you will sit down and feel empty with your Lord every once in a while, knowing that he feels the pit that is in your heart and emotions that threatens to swallow you and all of your passions and motivation up.
Shalom.
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I apologize to everyone for the structure (or lack thereof) in this post. I'm terrible at structuring my writing, and hope that it was clear enough to follow. If you have any questions, definitely feel free to post them at the bottom though and I will answer. Also, if you have suggestions for me, as always, include those too. I hope to become better at writing posts that are easier to follow as I continue to write this.
Thanks for writing this - gave me some things to think about. Nothing I hadn't heard before, but I need to be reminded of this frequently because I forget all too quickly.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you said about following God's plan. Just want to add to it that this being "deeply intimate" with Him is found in studying and meditating on His Word, which is the way He speaks to us today. When we know His commands given in Scripture and we are seeking to obey Him in our lives, basing our decisions on what we know about Him, then we will be following His plan. He is in control of every detail of everything; our responsibility is to glorify Him as much as we can.
I definitely agree :). And while studying His word may mean daily readings, I also find it helpful to read other peoples' thoughts on His word. Then I look up the verses myself, to see if they have ripped them out of context or not. In this way, I am getting the context for myself, and actually interacting with the Word in a way that I wouldn't necessarily do in a daily reading. Not that a daily reading is a bad idea by any means--in fact, I would still recommend that one be started-but it's not the only means to dig deep, and if you miss one day, or even a week, I doubt God is all that disappointed and that you need to beat yourself up for it. Just get back up.
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