By Not Known
In some places church services start with the words “Let us worship God.” These
good words summon believers to give God his worth for who he is by praying to
him, listening to what he says and by singing his praises.
During this last month we have been reminded and challenged about different
aspects of our services of worship.
It’s now time to broaden our focus. The Bible calls us to a worship emphasis life.
Noah gave God his worth by obeying the call to build and enter the ark. Abraham
gave God his worth by eventually trusting him for a natural heir and then trusting
him with his son’s life. And on it goes through the Old Testament. There is a
constant concern that what happened inside the worship tent and temple was
matched by the life outside. Today’s passage from Amos 5 illustrates this with his
particular concern for justice and care of the poor.
This is reinforced in the New Testament. Jesus rather than a church building, is the
temple where we meet God. (Jn 2: 12-22). Jesus was rather disinterested in the
beauty of the temple building (Mk 13: 1-2). He said that the place of worship was
not as important as its manner (Jn 4:23). Further – it was better to reflect God’s
justice, righteousness and mercy than engage in endless bloodied sacrifices (Mt
9:9-17; 12:1-8). All these sayings point us to a worship emphasis life.
A key text on Christian worship is Romans 12: 1-2. Worship arises from hearts that
are grateful for God’s mercies in Jesus. Worship involves the mind, as we think
with God-centred patterns. In fact, worship involves our whole person and life
becoming a living offering to God.
What does this mean in practice? Read on in Roman 12-15. Paul talks about a life of
service with our talents, love, patience, prayer, generosity, blessing enemies,
submitting to authorities, bearing with the less mature and such like.
So this is the challenge to us. Let us continue to gather for intentional acts of
worship in our Sunday services and Let us bring grateful hearts to them. But let us
also give ourselves to a worship emphasis life in which we reflect God’s character
and mercies in all we think, say and do.
let us worship God. These words are also a suitable benediction at the end of a
church service as we go to give God his worth by lives of love and service.