“Then said Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan; for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.”
You probably recognize that this verse is centered in Jesus’ temptation by Satan after JESUS had fasted for forty days and forty nights. Satan was trying to get Jesus to worship him, but Jesus made it plain to Satan that people are to worship God and God alone. ("Worship" and "serve" are closely related in the Bible.) We read about worship throughout the Bible. Worship is important for it takes place when we center and focus our minds and hearts on the Lord. We are to worship privately and publically. Worship is as necessary to the Christian as eating and drinking. That answers why we worship, now we need to look at how we worship. We worship God through prayer. Prayer itself is an act of worship. When we pray we concentrate our hearts and minds on God, either in petition or meditation. Petition and meditation are important parts of worship. In petitioning God we are confessing to Him that we know that all of the things that we need in this life come from Him. In meditating we focus our minds and hearts on God and just let Him speak to our hearts. Worshipful prayer is a two-way communication: God hears us when we pray and we hear His “still small voice” while we concentrate fully on Him. Prayer is a great act of worship for it verifies that we know that we are wholly dependent on God in all of life. We worship God through singing. Paul wrote about this in Ephesians 5:18-19: “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit. 19. Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” We come together to worship in fellowship with fellow Christians and a large part of our worship together is singing. We do not sing to show off our talents, or to merely make merry in song. We sing to worship the Lord. The words of hymns can help us to focus our minds on God. Many of our hymns remind us of what Jesus did for us at Calvary, and we worship Him in the process. When the choir sings, we are not to just listen to the beauty of the music, but we are to see the beauty of the Lord. But we do not worship in song only in fellowship with other Christians. There are times when I sing some of the hymns that I know by heart in my private worship. The familiar words of the hymns help me to focus on the Lord. I have found that I can concentrate on what God is saying to my heart when I am “making melody in my heart and soul to the Lord.” There are many new songs that are being sung today called “praise hymns.” They also have a message about the Lord and lift up praise to Christ Jesus. We worship God through the preaching of His word. In most non-Catholic churches, the pulpit stand is in the center of the pulpit area. This is simply a symbol that God’s word and the preaching of it is the central act of worship. Whether the pulpit is in the center or not, preaching is still the central act of worship. That is why we are to listen reverently while the preacher is preaching. The preacher is sharing a portion of God’s word and applying it to life. While the preaching is going on, the Holy Spirit is at work in the minds and hearts of the preacher and the people. When I preach, I sometimes remind the congregation that what I am saying is important. It is not important because I’m saying it, but because it is what God has given to me to share with them on that day. The “preaching moment” is an act of worship by the preacher and the congregation. There is certainly more to worship than I have written here, but the three things that I wrote about are familiar to us and need to be recognized as part of our worship. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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September 2021
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