Worship is recognition.
Realizing
who God is and who we are is the foundation and
beginning of our worship. Recognizing God as our
creator, redeemer, and sustainer establishes the
object of our worship in its proper place. God calls
us into divine, relational encounter. Our participation
in worship follows God’s initiative. Our acts of
worship begin with the acknowledgment that we
are first of all recipients of God’s love.
Worship is a gift. We could not worship
were it not for the love and grace first bestowed
upon the creation by the Creator. Our capacity to
bear witness, praise, and lament is given by God,
just as our desire to respond is a part of who we
are as bearers of God’s image. When we worship,
we participate with all of creation. We do not own
worship, we participate in it.
Worship is a response.
When we worship
God we are responding to the immeasurable love
and grace found in who God is and what God has
done. Our worship takes many forms, but each
manifestation of this response will be motivated
first by who we believe God to be and what we
confess God has done.
Worship is infinitely multifaceted. Our response is rooted in our understandings and
experiences of God’s love and grace. Worship can
take the shape of service, prayer, study, singing,
liturgy, or fellowship — each its own response to
a God who meets us in every place and time.
Worship is a lifestyle. It is not bound by the time, our location, or our present company. St. Paul encouraged the Christians in Colossae to do everything as an act of thanksgiving to God through the name of Jesus. May God so work in us that we see each spoken word, each moment of work, each relationship, and each day as our worship - our living sacrifice of worship to God. |
Web Exclusives