God created us to worship Him. We, however, muck that up. This daily devotional reviews what worship is and isn’t and what our response to worship should be.
Devotions in the Self-Discipline Review series
All year, we’ve been looking at self-discipline. We looked at self-discipline as the operational plan for self-control because it talked about improvement.
We are reviewing everything and hopefully putting all of the building blocks together. What I am doing is going through all of the devotions for the year and pulling out the nuggets.
I am formatting this as a glossary page. If I already have one, I will combine them later.
God is a living God that has no equal. We are renewed when we choose to live for Him. This leads to worshiping the One true God (Isaiah’s Message on Renewal).
Our purpose is to worship Him (What Is Truth?).
Heaven right now is filled with praises to God. Think of what it will be like when we all get there. And heaven will ring with His praises for all of eternity (Forever Worshiping Our Lord).
One of these days, we will continually be worshiping our Father (Using Worship to Educate Our Thoughts).
What Is Worship?
Worship is our personal or corporate response (confession, thanksgiving, praise, etc.) based on our attitude to God’s presence.
We were created to worship God. A component of that is imitating Him — changing our character to be more like Him (How Should We Handle God’s Discipline?).
Day Seven of creation was the day God rested. There was no morning and evening. We know it had a morning because Day Six had an evening. Day Seven didn’t. We are still in Day Seven. If Day Seven of creation is the Sabbath — the day we are to worship — and it hasn’t ended, we are to continuously worship the One true God. That makes worship priority #1 (What Is the Sabbath?).
Worshiping God puts us in communion with Him (Using Worship to Educate Our Thoughts).
We have access to God by His Word. We approach Him through prayer and worship (What Are the Fruits of Righteousness?).
Disciples are given peace so that we can focus on worshiping God. If we are focusing on the chaos of this world, we aren’t feeling the worship (The Fruits of Discerning the Voice of God).
We are to give thanks for God’s mercy and love through worship (How Else Do We Worship God?).
How — and how often — we worship God is a good indication of our spiritual condition (The Life and Death Matter of Worship).
We are to worship daily so that the consistency helps us change our character to imitate God. Being consistent is easier when we are more consistent (Honoring the Lord through Worship).
The assurance comes as we grow closer to God. When we pray to, converse with, and worship Him, we spend time in His presence. When we do the work that He has called us to do, we show we are making Him a priority. When we take part in the sacraments, we follow His Will and worship Him as He has directed (How Do Disciples Mourn?).
See Also
What Worship Isn’t
- Sometimes, we can convince ourselves that worship isn’t important. Or we try to justify our absence in corporate worship by detailing all of the ways we feel it does not fit what God had in mind. Worship is really important to God. In fact, it is a life and death matter (The Life and Death Matter of Worship).
- Our worship cannot be like the Jews. They didn’t have zeal. It isn’t about religion and ceremony (How Else Do We Worship God?).
- If we don’t love God, we are not going to love God first and foremost, worship anything but Him, watch how we use His name, and find a community of people who believe like we do and meet with them regularly (God’s Law Creates Peace).
- We are called to worship God. We aren’t called to know if it was creation or evolution. We aren’t called to know how to fix the social ills of this society (What Is Religious Instruction).
- Because worldview people place their selfish interests above all other things, they worship things that do not give God His due (Does God Really Call Us to Give Up Everything?).
- That doesn’t mean that we haven’t tried to foist our notions on God. We may not fall to our knees and worship something made of wood or stone, but we worship objects that takes from God the worship that is His due. That’s what an idol is. If we are worshiping an idol, we are not fulfilling the covenant of grace (Isaiah’s Message on Renewal; How Else Do We Worship God?).
- Philosophy should not creep into our worship of God (What Is Spiritual Discernment?).
- We have to give pure worship to God. If we don’t, He won’t accept our worship. God requires us to be pure — in our worship and our lives (What Is Chastity to a Disciple of Christ?).
Our Response to Worship
Since we worship the Creator of the universe, we can be confident in God (How Do We Worship God?).
We worship God because we trust Him with all our hearts (How Do We Worship God?).
Worship is about showing our delight in the Lord by rejoicing in joy (How Else Do We Worship God?).
We worship that about which we are enthusiastic. We are to serve — and worship — only God. The master we serve will be the master we worship (How Else Do We Worship God?).
Worship is voluntary. It must be sincere. But it also has to be consistent (How Do We Worship through Praise?).
As we grow in that relationship, we grow in our worship of God. Until we value what God and Jesus have done for us, we can’t truly worship Them. (How Do We Worship God?; How Else Do We Worship God?).
Worship is an important duty on the disciple’s job description. Job Description Duty #1 and #2 focus on our personal relationships with God. However, #1 includes elements of how we are to worship Him (Isaiah’s Message of Salvation).
To worship God, we need to shift our focus from the world to Him (How Do We Worship God?).
We need to be conscientious and humble in serving God. We have to put the focus on God and worship Him (Worshiping God the Right Way).
In order to truly worship God, we need to set Him as a priority in our lives. We need to focus on Him because of His majesty. We must choose to totally submit to Him and worship Him in spirit and truth. We have to worship God with all of our hearts (How Do We Worship God?; How Does God Call His Messengers?; How Else Do We Worship God?).
We need to worship God in the appropriate way. He has specific instructions as to how we are to worship Him. We just talked about the Israelites worshiped God, but He did not accept their worship (How Is Sobriety a Balanced Life?).
Our worship should be based on God’s character. As we learn more of His character, we can see Who we are worshiping (How Else Do We Worship God?).
When we think about things in our worship that delight us, are we delighted about them for ourselves or for God? Are we truly worshiping and sacrificing? Or are we going through the ritual for some other reason? (Is Peace Really Just Delighting in the Lord?).
We can regulate our thoughts by focusing on our worship on God. We educate ourselves in the ways in which God calls us to worship (Using Worship to Regulate our Thoughts).
A way to worship God is to imitate Him. One way to do that is to love those He has created. When we help those who need help, we are to accomplish that in a way that honors God (Disciples and Charitableness).
We are supposed to respond in faith and do God’s Will. In other words, hearing alone is not good enough. We have to put into practice what God is telling us. This is one way we worship God (What Is Obedience?).
We need to let worship shape our attitude to read the Scriptures. We have to approach the Scriptures after we worship (How to Study Scriptures).
If we take out what He’s done for us, we are left with God’s character. That is enough to demand our worship of Him (How Else Do We Worship God?).
We aren’t supposed to keep our worship to ourselves. We are to witness to the lost (How Else Do We Worship God?).
We are free to choose to not worship God in the Sabbath — or any other day. We cannot expect God to change His mind and say not worshiping Him is not a sin (Honoring the Lord through Worship).
We cannot let the “we’re not going to worship God in this way” mask the unpardonable sin. If we do that, we will be a goat on the left (Honoring the Lord through Worship).
We don’t honor God in worship when we keep our worship to ourselves. We must use that worship to witness to others (Honoring the Lord through Worship).
See Also
Divine Intervention in Worship
We should worship Jesus for His selfless sacrifice (How Do We Worship God?).
Just as God isn’t a dictator in making us worship Him, He is not a dictator in making us serve Him. He allows us to choose (How Are God’s Messengers Supposed to Respond?).
God knows our hearts. He knows our motivations. He knows why we are worshiping Him (Sometimes, War Can be Avoided).
God chose us even before He created us. We were to worship Him. He chose us to be saints (What Is the Relationship between Righteousness and Obedience?).
We are to make God our priority. He alone deserves our love and reverence. We are to worship Him alone (Sins against God).
God deserves our worship because He keeps His promises. God’s Will will be done. We have to make Him the Sovereign God of our lives (Blessings, not Curses).
Worship and Churchy Words
- Hope helps grow disciples of Christ in faith. The product is a life lived in worship (How Else Do We Worship God?).
- When we are meditating on God’s Will and praying and worshiping Him, that beings us peace. And not just any peace — perfect peace (Using Worship to Educate Our Thoughts).
- Sometimes, prayer will be pouring out our troubles at the foot of the cross. We are good at that. Always, prayer should be us pouring out our worship to our loving Heavenly Father (Using Worship to Educate Our Thoughts).
- Our prayers should be about praying to worship God. It is coming to Him as Sovereign God (Can God See Us If We Are Sinners?).
- The prayer bone has to be connected with the meditation/thought/mind bone, which is connected to the thankful/worship/heart bone. It is the Holy Spirit wrapping it up, so it focuses on worship (Using Worship to Educate Our Thoughts).
- Rejoicing is being thankful and praising God — worshiping Him (Using Worship to Educate Our Thoughts).
It all comes down to we need to give God the reverence due Him. We were made to worship Him. When we do that, He will reward us (Rewards for Focusing on God).
We must daily choose to worship God because He is the giver of life and good. Each of us must choose today (How Do We Worship God?).
We are renewed when we choose to live for Him. This leads to worshiping the One true God (Isaiah’s Message on Renewal).
We are going to spend eternity worshiping (Discerning between the Seen and Unseen Worlds to Secure Eternity). We won’t get to the worshiping in heaven part if we don’t worship in this life (Forever Worshiping Our Lord).
Father God. We worship You. We submit our lives to You. Grow us closer to You. Amen.
What do you think?
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