Individual Worship...

First and foremost, worship starts with the individual.  It starts with you - you alone and your relationship with God.  Anything outside of that is just extra.  It might be great and important, but it is still extra.  At the very core, in the deepest part of your existence, what is sometimes called the heart is how you relate to God.  Do you know Him?

 

How?

How can you worship someone you have never known?  How can someone whom you do not know possibly have all of your love, all of you?  Isn’t that what worship is?  Giving all of yourself, all of your love to someone you adore above all else?

Giving your entire being is precisely what worshiping God demands - all of you, all of your love, given first and foremost to God.  In addition, worshiping God demands that you not worship another “god.”  That would be idolatry.  We will talk more about that later.

When we worship God, we must worship Him on His own terms.  Jesus said, “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.”  (John 4:23)

 

In the Beginning

From the beginning of man, God has been seeking those with whom He can have relationship.  In the cool of day, He sought the company of those He created in His own image (see Genesis 1).  He is still looking for those moments of friendship and intimacy.  Worship is not a one way ticket.  It has always been about relationship.  God, the creator of everything that is, loves us and deeply wants to be with us. 

Sin separated us from that garden, but God, in His great love for us, made a way for us to return to that place of first encounter.  This gives us the first reason to worship Him, to give our all to Him through worship, because He gave us His all.

 

Why?

We worship Him out of our love for Him.  We come to know Him in our acknowledgment of what He did for us through the sacrifice of Jesus.  As we give ourselves to Him, we learn of Him through His Word and our relationship with His Word.

In Deuteronomy, Moses wrote, “Now this is the commandment … Therefore hear … Be careful to observe it … That it may be well with you …”

 

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!
You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, and with all your strength.

 

In the New Testament, Jesus was asked, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”  Jesus replied, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart’, with all your soul, and with all your mind.  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:36-40)

In your time alone with God today, ask Him to reveal more of Himself to you so that you may know Him more.  The more you know of Him, the deeper and more intimate your worship of Him.  Until our next time …

 

Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight,
show me now Your way, that I may know You … (Exodus 33:13)