All People Must Be Loved

Worship
Think you could date someone for a while without ever telling that person how you feel about him or her? How about your family? Think they would be satisfied if you just grunted at them every once in a while and spared yourself the effort of letting them know that you love them? Nope. Most people want to be told every once in a while that they are loved.

God is like that, too. Although he's never insecure, he likes to hear his children express their love directly to him. This is the essence of what we call worship.

Israel had a lengthy list of instructions about worship (see Exod 35). These would have been familiar to people like Hannah who traveled regularly to worship at the Tabernacle (see 1 Sam 1). Here are the who, what, when, where, and why of worship.

Who: Easy, right? We worship God. But at times the focus of worship shifts from God to what God does for us. Praising God for his goodness is okay. But praising God because he is God is good, too.

What: Worship means giving God the glory and obedience he deserves. We can be intentional about praising God and talking with him.

When: While any time is acceptable to worship God, the Scriptures teach us to set aside regular times for worship (Heb 10:24-25). The early church met on the first day of the week. Churches today often meet on Sunday and other days of the week.

Where: There are almost as many different places where Christians worship as there are Christians. Jesus clearly taught that where you worship God isn't as important as the worship itself (John 4:19-24). You can worship God anywhere.

Why: The why of worship is simple and twofold: First, we worship because God wants us to. But worship is not just for us; it's for God. He's pleased when we offer it.

Second, we worship because we need to. When we worship, we are reminded that he is God, and we are not.

So, are you ready to worship? Your Father is waiting to hear from you.