It’s easy to look at the plethora of religious choices and wonder why worship matters. It’s not uncommon to meet devotees of differing groups who try to get out of honoring their deities. Whether it’s avoiding trips to a temple to make offerings, avoiding Sunday church attendance, skipping out on the Jewish High Holy Days, or avoiding Ramadan fasts, there are people of all belief systems who seem to live ordinary lives while skipping out on spiritual devotion. Many claim to believe in deities they don’t know or can’t understand. Without any sense of relationship, they avoid the spiritual principles to guide them into a deep place of worship.
Still, there are definitely times where even the most emphatic believer might not understand why worship matters. They might attend service out of obligation or fear rather than a true and lasting conviction of knowledge and relationship with God. While we might be full of zeal, we might not understand the principle of authentic worship, and why it matters.
It’s easy to look out at other belief systems or ideas and deem their worship in one light or another. It’s another thing entirely to honestly look at ourselves and assess where our worship is and how true our devotion might be. Assessing our worship, however, is essential to spiritual growth.
What is worship?
According to the Scriptures, the word “worship” literally means to prostrate or bow down, or to fall down before. For example, when the Bible speaks of someone “falling down” in the presence of God (such as in Revelation) or before someone (such as Jesus when He was on this earth), it’s speaking of a state of worship. While worship can look like many different things, worship itself is an act of reverence from deep devotion to someone or something. In worship, we recognize who we are before God, as well as Who God is before us.
Someone might argue that such reverence is passe, reserved for a different place and time. As a Christian, however, I can’t coincide with such reasoning. Worship is essential for us as people. It matters as we understand who we are before God and reverence His role in our lives. To worship God is to center ourselves, ground ourselves, and honor the One Who created us, sustains us, and redeems us throughout life. Far from being boring, it’s the very heart of who we are as people.
Obligation or privilege?
Many religious devotees are taught church attendance to be an obligation. My mom grew up believing if she missed a Sunday service, she would receive a “black mark” on her soul. This “black mark” would be enough to condemn her to hell. While I grew up with a different version of this concept, I can vouch it made the concept of worship seem like a chore.
Even now as a Christian, attending a Sunday service might sometimes seem more obligatory than joyful. It’s also tempting to assume that if we meet with a Sunday obligation, our worship requirement is met for the week. Both are misnomers, although understandable. When we don’t understand what we are doing, it’s hard to understand why we do it.
The Old Testament speaks about establishment of different precepts to ensure proper worship regulations. Much of the law’s regulations were difficult, if not impossible, to follow. The goal was to establish pure worship among a pure people. God wanted the Israelites to see worship as an entire way of being, one by which the idea of sacred and secular were merged into one life. From this lesson, the goal was to learn that human beings need a Savior to truly realize their standing before God.
The various Old Testament regulations might seem convoluted. Behind their complexities was the reality that worship of the true God was a privilege. It was an honor to be the people of God and have Him as their supreme leader. The same is true for us today. While we no longer have to sacrifice animals, wear certain garments, or perform washing rituals, we still have the honor of worshiping God as the only and true God today.
Security with God
Let us learn from ancient history and never take our relationship with God for granted. This applies to our worship as much as anything else. Hebrews 12:26-29 reminds us why such is important:
At that time His voice shook the earth, but now He has promised, ‘Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.’ The words ‘once more’ indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our ‘God is a consuming fire. (NIV)
Everything that is here on earth shall be shaken. Any worship that is insincere (i.e., impure) before God will be shaken and tried. While false systems created by man can be shaken and destroyed, worship acceptable before God can withstand any trial or testing.
How’s your attitude about this matter? How important do you feel it is? Do you see it as a temporary thing, or a permeating thing? Let us check our worship! May it be an offering unto our wonderful God: pure, holy, and acceptable.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In