Worship

I was asked to write something recently about worship for a video for church.  This is what I came up with:

How do I worship God?

The other day I was sitting outside reading and small bee landed on my page. It was so tiny that I could scarcely see its wings. Yet I knew that each of those wings were intricately perfect. Things like this cause me to worship because I see how amazing God is.

O Lord, our Lord,

how majestic is your name in all the earth!

I worship God when I acknowledge that God is greater than I am and that I need to submit to Him. I am not a morning person. When I wake up in the morning, I am not remotely with it. But as I put my feet on the floor, if I remember, I say ‘'Into Your hands I commit my spirit, for You have redeemed me, O Lord God of truth’. I say this because as I start the new day, I need God. I cannot do any of my life by myself. I am recognising that He is God and I am not, and I must follow Him, not the other way round. Worship is an attitude of mind, rather than something we do on Sunday, or during our quiet times:

Therefore, I urge you, sisters and brothers, 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. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

That’s Romans 12:1

Some of you have heard this before. When I’m in the shower every morning, I sing 10,000 reasons (that’s the song ‘Bless the Lord O my soul, o-o-o my soul). Years ago I read something that said that the habits we set up now can still be there when we are old and have lost the ability to think. So right now, when I still can, I’m repeating this over and over again, so that when I have dementia and no longer know who I am, still then my voice will praise God, sing His glory, because He is worthy.

I also worship God when I do my job the best I can. Eric Liddell said

“God made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure. ”

When I use my skills and abilities, then I worship God. The mountains glorify God by being amazing, the red kites glorify God by the spread and grandeur of their wings. I glorify God by being Jemima in whatever I do, when I am doing it for Jesus.

As George Herbert put it:

Teach me, my God and King In all things Thee to see,

And what I do in anything To do it as for Thee.

If I do that, it is an act of worship – offering myself, my true and proper worship.

Afterwards, I thought there was something that I had missed. Sometimes I don’t feel like worshiping. Sometimes I don’t remember to do any of the things above. 

Sometimes all that works is to put on a worship playlist and crank up the volume. Then when I hear the voices lifted in praise, then my heart rememberers and then I worship.