Focal passage: 2 Chronicles 15:10-19
What do you think about when you hear the word worship? For some, that word brings to mind a particular kind of music. For many, the word worship brings up the idea of a corporate gathering that includes music, money and preaching.
In many cases, a discussion of worship begins with pointing back to the definition of the old English word meaning to give worth or value to something. While that background can be helpful, it is inadequate. For one thing, we cannot give value to God. His worth is unlimited and incalculable. For another thing, the authenticity of our worship is not determined as much by the value we claim to see in God, but rather the response of our lives in complete surrender and obedience to the One who has ultimate worth. While Asa called the people of Israel to covenant renewal and to a corporate gathering of worshipping God, Asa’s true worship of God was illustrated in all he did outside that gathering as well. His commitment to tearing down places of pagan worship and destroying pagan idols, even those tied to his own family, demonstrated that God had ultimate value to Asa and first place in all his life.
Our worship together as the people of God should be a gathered expression of the worship illustrated by our lives every day. I believe this is what Paul had in mind when he commanded the believers in Rome to “present [their] bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, which is [our] reasonable act of worship” (Romans 12:1b). Our most clear act of worship is complete surrender and obedience to the One we claim has ultimate worth and first place in our lives. That doesn’t just happen on Sunday. Our words and actions at work should be our response to the worthiness of God. Our willingness to share Christ with those we meet must show that God’s worthiness is of far greater value than our comfort.
What does your daily worship – illustrated through surrender and obedience – say about your view of His worth?