In today's culture there is a tendency to be selfishly motivated. Even in the simplest thought of how our world around us constantly effects us and, what we think about things or, how we want to do things. This is definitely a prevalent attitude in today's culture. How does everything effect me? The problem is that this mentality often creeps up on us in our spiritual lives and in our worship of God. We want the "feelings" that go along with worshipping God. We want experiential worship where we "feel" God's presence. This often puts us in the center of worship and not God. Now, I need to clarify that there is nothing wrong with worshipping God and having our feelings sweep us into the experience. Those senses were created by God and are used to bring Him glory. The problem is when we focus so much on the experience that we lose site of the object of our worship. Worship has very little to do with us and has everything to do with God.
So, how do we move from this sense of selfishness in worship towards selflessness? The answer is obedience. A major part of worshipping God is living in obedience. It is not just an experience, it is a lifestyle. It is not just one day a week for an hour, but it is in the other 167 hours a week that we should worship God most.
What does worshipping God in obedience look like? What does God call us to? Christ made a challenge to us in John 14:23, "Jesus replied, 'If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him." What an amazing picture of worship. How do we show God love? How do we worship Him? In obedience to His word. And, the result of showing God love is not all that bad: that God will make His home with us. Talk about experiential worship! The God of heaven in all His perfect character living in us! But, don't forget where it starts: obedience. Another passage of scripture that shows us that same image is 1 John 3:24, "Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us." I ask the question again to reiterate the truth: how do we show God love? 1 John 5:3a "This is love for God: to obey his commands." The answer all throughout scripture is obedience.
There is another point I'd like to make as far as worship and obedience is concerned. Read the following statement carefully: you will worship what you obey and you will obey what you worship. The world worships many things such as money, success, and freedom. They also obey whatever it takes to get more money, success, or freedom. There is also something in believers that wants us to obey it rather than God and it is seeking to steal worship from Him. It is our sinful nature at war within us. It wants us to obey and worship things of the flesh, idols such as wealth, sex, materialism, and pride or self to name a few. Instead of obeying our sinful nature and in turn worshipping things of the flesh, God calls us to obey His teaching and in turn to show Him love and worship. There is hope, even though our sinful nature wages war in us, it has already been conquered. Romans chapter six gives a good picture of this struggle and the hope in it.
"12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires."
"16Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves,
you are slaves to the one whom you obey--whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to
death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that,
though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to
which you were entrusted. 18You have been set free from sin and have become slaves
to righteousness." Romans 6:12; 16-18
We do not have to be slaves to sin. We can be slaves to obedience, showing God love, which leads to righteousness. We ought to obey God in our daily lives to show Him our worshipping lifestyle that is lived in obedience to His Word. Let us strive on for His glory, so that it may be shown through us every day.
0 comments:
Post a Comment