We Were Made to Worship
OCT 6th 2008 • 2 Comments
I was singing along with a Chris Tomlin song in the car driving home tonight. The song is "Made to Worship", in it he says, "You and I were made to worship", and it suddenly struck me how amazing that is. We were made to worship God!
It's easy for me to think that I was made to create websites, or that as a Christian, I'm made to spread the word of God, or serve the church in some way. All of that is important and I believe God would have me do all of those things. But at the heart of it all, my reason for being is to worship God! WOW! What an amazing joy it is to be alive with that purpose.
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment." -Matt. 22:37-38 ESV
Commanded to Love and Worship?
How can we be *commanded* to love God? Well it's a perfectly natural command. We love God because He first loved us, unconditionally, in spite of who we are. In spite of our depravity and of all we've done. He loved us enough to unleash his wrath on his only Son. How can we help but love him? How can we help but worship him?
posted in: God |
Jimothy Snook • Oct 7th 2008 • 3:25 pm
This is oh so true! First of all, I love Chris Tomlin. Nothing (short of my love for God) has made me want to sing aloud about God more than his songs.
A lot of my Christian friends are confused on this. Unfortunately, because one church can differ so much from another, the experience you'll have will vary significantly from one to the next. At the church I went to in College (now 120 miles away), worship was first and foremost above everything else. There were no announcements, prayers, or anything else before worship. Once everyone was situated, the band started and singing commenced. Since then, I've been to churches where structure, formality, and church-tradition comes before worship... and as such, the worship service suffers. These are the types of churches my friends attend. They think "church is boring" as a result of it.
Nothing makes me happier than participating in an enthusiastic worship service. I wish I could find churches EVERYWHERE that think along these lines. Somehow the message in your blog needs to be conveyed to everyone.
Dave Joyce • Oct 7th 2008 • 4:08 pm
Thanks Jimothy for the comments! =)
While I believe we are made to worship, I feel it should also be noted that worship involves so much more than simply singing praises to God. I believe worshiping God should be our lifestyle and should affect everything we set out to do. I can worship God with my job by doing it as unto the Lord. I can worship God through service to others. And most of all I can worship God by simply obeying his command to love him with all my heart, soul and mind as the Holy Spirt enables me to do. If I do that, everything else should flow out naturally.
When it comes to music in church, worship styles can often be divisive, and I don't believe this should ever be the case. If we're going into church with a heart of worship and are seeking to give glory to God, the style of music should be of minimal importance. Traditional hymns are God inspired and have beautiful meaning. If I can't worship God singing songs like that, I'm probably seeking to please myself more than I'm seeking to please God. I personally think that complete rejection of one style over another is a mistake. People on both sides of the aisle need to focus completely on God and not on personal preference for a music style