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Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east, and have come to worship Him.
(Matthew 2:2)
If asked to whom or to what we bow down, we would say that we bow to no one. That seems to be engrained in our American culture and what we believe it means to be an American. And, in a sense this is true. Our nation calls us to pledge our allegiance to the nation as one nation under God, at least at this point in history. But our culture has moved far from God and in doing so has exalted itself as the supreme end and source of what is good. How mistaken it is. But as the product of our culture in this fallen world, we know other possibility. We have no knowledge of God. We have elevated individualism to the point where we do not knowingly or willingly bow down before anyone or anything. What we fail to see is that we worship ourselves and our culture. We idolize entertainers and sports figures. We seek fulfillment in jobs, education, fame, fortune, and even family. We bow before many false gods, though we would never recognize it or admit it was true. And since we are devoid of the knowledge of God, we don't see a problem in what we do.
It is the transforming work of the Holy Spirit that begins to work in our lives as we begin hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ that first starts drawing us to Jesus. Something is stirring in us that is leading us to desire to know this man named Jesus. Unbeknownst to us, Jesus is being revealed to our heart which is putting him in direct competition for our worship. We know nothing about worship and so we don't know that ultimately we will not be able to continue to worship the things of this world or ourselves if we are going to follow Jesus. But at this point, we are being drawn. In time we begin to plug into a church. It is most likely at church where we will first encounter the idea of worship. We probably won't understand what it means at first. Depending on our church, worship may be associated with the church service itself if it is referred to as the worship service. In this case, we will probably come to think of worship as a time to gather together in the church. Maybe we will even see it as a time to celebrate Jesus and praise God. But we will not think of it as bowing down and we will not see it as anything apart from the church service itself. Nevertheless, within the church service we will be led into times in which we may encounter the Lord. We will begin experiencing our heart draw to Jesus. We will have a sense of excitement at times and a sense of awe at other times. There may be points where we found ourselves broken and humbling ourselves during the service. We may not understand that we are learning to worship, to bow our heart, mind, and body before the Lord, but we are. Perhaps the church we attend refers to a particular segment of the service in terms of worship. They may not do this intentionally, but we come to see it that way. The segment with which we are most likely to interpret as worship is the time of singing. Perhaps the song leader will be referred to as the worship leader. The only time we see this person is when we sing. Maybe there is a group of musicians and singers accompanying the worship leader that is referred to as the worship team. Without our understanding what worship really is, we will come to equate worship with singing. Sure, the songs we sing are about Jesus. They speak of God pretty often, though not much as Father. From time to time there may even be a song that refers to the Holy Spirit. We enjoy this time of singing because it is much more interactive and energetic that other parts of the service. We may appreciate the other parts, but it is the time of singing that gets our blood pumping. There is nothing wrong with singing of the Lord and singing to the Lord. That is a part of worship. But it is only a part, a particular expression. In song our hearts can be drawn to the Lord and we may bow before Him and send kisses his way. We are learning to worship, but we do not know what worship is. The challenge we face at this point in our limited understanding of worship is that we think of worship as being about us. We are indeed learning to sing to the Lord and praise Him but we are more focused on ourselves rather than the Lord. We can focus in on our own preferences and expectations. We may not like some of the music for example. We may be disappointed that we didn't sing a particular song. Maybe, if the service is considered a worship service, we listen to the sermon and walk away disappointed because we didn't get anything out of it. What we don't yet understand is that worship is focused on God and about God, it is not about us.
For us to grow in Christian maturity, we have to gain insight into what worship really is and who worship is about. The good news is that the Lord is at work in us if we are drawing near to him. If we are praying and reading our Bible, if we are in a small group or a one-on-one discipleship relationship, then there is a chance that we will begin to learn what worship is and what it is not. If we read the Bible and study it, we will come across "worship". Perhaps we begin to ask what "worship" really means. In the process, we come to understand the definition of worship. We begin to see that it is more than the church service or the songs. Along with a clearer understanding of the definition of worship, we will gain insight into worship through the practice of worship. Worship is not the definition, but the act that is identified. It is our bowing down before the Lord. In learning to worship, we become aware that there are things in our life that we have been worshiping. Though we could not recognize this truth previously, we are beginning to see it now. We are starting to grasp that to worship anything other than God is to have another god before the Lord. By God's grace, we begin to see that as we started to follow Christ, there were some things that we laid aside for the sake of following Jesus. We are in awe of what God has already done in us. But at the same time we start to realize that there are other areas in our life and in our heart that we had not noticed before. We are beginning to realize that there are things that we value, that we worship, which are not Christ. We may be shocked or ashamed by the insight. But if we humble ourselves before Christ, bow down before him, bow before our Father in heaven, then we will surrender those things over to Christ. We will come to realize that we cannot serve the things we have treasured and God at the same time. Something will have to go. Because we are maturing in Christ, it will be the things that we have been treasuring apart from God that will God. There is a shift taking place in our heart. We are putting Christ above ourselves. The god we once worshiped, which was ultimately ourselves, is being crucified. We are beginning to see that we are to worship throughout the day, not just at church. We are worship in all that we say and do. Sure we may sing as an act of worship. We may meditate on Scripture. We may serve the church and people in need. What we are discovering is that God is the object of our worship and that worship takes place as our heart and mind is focused on Him throughout each day. We are learning that whatever we say and do is to be done for the glory of God. Increasingly, our desire is to glorify God and to live for Him alone. As we offer ourselves as a living sacrifice which is holy and pleasing to God, that this is our act of worship.
With a clear understanding of what worship is and having learned that we are truly worshiping the Lord when we live for him rather than ourselves, we continue to grow in our practice of worship. Each day and each opportunity provides us with a chance to worship our God. Each act of worship is a surrendering of our heart to the Lord. It is a bowing down before Him. Each time we consciously surrender a given moment to the Lord and seek to glorify Him, that is an act of worship. Day by day, week by week, we offer ourselves to the Lord. We do this because of our growing love of God. Worship is our loving response to God's love, with which He first loved us. Somewhere along the way, we surrendered our heart to the Lord. We acknowledged that He is Lord of all, including our life. So we live the surrendered life. Our time is spent worshiping the Lord. Our life itself is offered as an act of worship. We join with the body of Christ and sing songs. We share in communion and serve the body of Christ with our gifts. We proclaim the name of Jesus to those who have not yet heard of him and do not yet know him. Simply put, we spend our time with Jesus. We worship the Lord.
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