Continuing on from my thoughts from yesterday about whether faith without works is really faith, I was also challenged in the way of worship. Can we worship without action? Is it worship without action? My immediate thoughts went to the following scripture.
"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is —his good, pleasing and perfect will." (Romans 12:1-2)
So, it made me think, if offering our bodies as a sacrifice to God is true worship, this cannot be possible without some sort of action, without us doing something. It's obvious that worship is not done by us doing nothing but many people consider singing songs is all we need to do to worship, but true worship is more than that. True worship is giving God our all in everything we do. It's about giving Him our lives, and our hearts. So, can we worship without action? No, I don't believe we can.
Worshiping God in song is just one way of worshiping Him and most of us do this often. I personally find that this is the easiest way for me to worship however, it needs to be about more than just singing a nice tune. I believe that there are a few levels to worshiping in song. There is worship on the first level which involves us simply speaking out our thanks and praise or singing to him, then the next level involves reaching out to him, raising our hands, and then the highest level is when we offer our all. We let go of everything that has been holding us back and just give Him everything. When we do this, when we hit that final level of worship, we will know. God loves our worship and He will change our heart during worship if we allow Him in.
But other than singing, how else do we worship. As it said above in Romans 12, worship is offering our bodies as a living sacrifice. This type of worship is when we allow God to do His work through us, and it involves more action from us than singing does. To worship through being a sacrifice we need to listen to what God is telling us, and then be obedient to His Word. If God tells us to go and talk to someone and we don't listen, it is not worship, we are not allowing Him to work through us. If He gives us a gift and we refuse to use it, it is not worship, we are not using what He has given us to help bring change. Regardless of what the world expects and wants us to do, we need to listen to God first, and put Him first in all we do. That is true worship. That is telling God that He is the number one in our lives and that shows we are truly thankful for all He has done.
"The highest form of worship is the worship of unselfish Christian service." Billy Graham
Just like Billy Graham said worship is unselfish Christian service. It's about serving God not for ourselves, but for Him and for others. If we worship only when we want to worship, or we worship because we think it will get us something that we have been wanting, then we are mistaken. Worship is not worship if it is for ourselves. So in everything we do, we need to do it with a heart of worship. Listen for the Holy Spirit's guidance and follow it obediently. Don't fight with what God is telling you to do, don't hold back from Him. Allow Him to do His work through you. It is the true worshipers that will start to make a change in the world.
Thankful for: Food
Today I am thankful for food. I know that to some it may seem strange to be thankful for food, but there are people in the world who do not have the luxury of eating food even just once a day and here I am eating whenever I want to. I thank God for the blessing He has put on my life, that I live in a place where famine is not a major issue. Really all of us who are able to eat enough to fill ourselves just once during the day are blessed. I bought two chocolate bars today, without thinking twice about it. How many people out there have never tasted chocolate? How many may never taste chocolate? Starting today, I plan to make a change. Next time I want to buy a chocolate, I will put aside that $1.50 and put it towards something that matters. Buying myself a chocolate is not going to acheive anything great in my own life, except maybe give me a slight sugar high, but giving up that $1.50 to a greater cause could be the beginning of a new life for someone else. We may never know the greatness that could come out of our willingness to give up even the smallest of luxuries.
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