i am an offering

Fred McKinnon just shared a link to his answers to five questions on worship he was asked by The Worship Journals and asked that we comment on his post with the answers to our questions.  I thought this would make a better blog post than a comment so here we go:

Five Questions on Worship

1. What does Worship Mean to You?

Worship means exalting something greater than we currently or previously have exalted it in our own mind.  We could worship a situation.  We could worship an experience.  We could worship a thing.  To me, I try above all else to worship God.  This means surrending myself, my thoughts, whatever I might be exalting at any given moment in time and exalting Him above it all.  This means letting myself decrease and Him increase.  This means letting God be the object of my worship every minute of each day.

2. What Causes You to Worship?

Ultimately - the Holy Spirit.  I can’t worship without the power of God prompting me to do so.  It’s impossible, so the Holy Spirit is what causes me to worship.  But as far as what the Holy Spirit uses to prompt me to worship:  music is a given for me.  So many types of music are used to prompt me to worship.  It helps immensely if the music directs my thoughts toward God and who He is, but I can also be prompted by the beauty and design of orchestral music or the spontaneity and skill of jazz music.  I can see the Creator’s hand in the creativity and complexity of both of these types of music.  I am also prompted by seeing people honor and glorify God in decisions they make and situations they’re in.  Mountains also prompt me to worship.  They show me how puny I am and how amazingly huge God is.  If the mountains are that majestic - how much more the One who Created them!

3. How is Worship Displayed in Your Life?

I hope that it is displayed in the way I live it.  I desire to live a life that exalts God every day and puts to death everything that doesn’t.  I want to offer my life as a living sacrifice to Him.  I hope that worship is displayed in my marriage, my relationship with my daughter, my relationship with my church and pastor, my relationship with my co-workers and through every interaction I have with people.

4. What is Your Favorite Song and Why?

Can it be the top 50? :-)  I think at the moment the song that the Holy Spirit is using most to speak to me would be “Let Your Kingdom Come” by Sovereign Grace Music off of the Valley of Vision album. I keep coming back to it and it keeps replaying in my mind.  It is such a good declaration to lift God’s cause higher than our own and to get my priorities out of the way and make my life about His priorites.

How would you answer these four questions?  (You can be brief, if you like!)

Do you have an accurate picture of who you are and your abilities? Do you think you are the absolute best at something and no one can do it better? This is something that we will struggle with as Christians. We are naturally bent towards pride. Thankfully, though, when we trust and obey the Holy Spirit, we now have the ability to join in His nature and join in the fight against pride. It’s not an easy task, but we fight every day.

Worshiping God by Having a Correct Understanding of our Gifts

Part of learning to worship God is learning that God has stamped His nature on us through the Holy Spirit and beginning to realize when we do things that are contrary to His nature. How do we join in God’s nature, being able to fight our natural tendency for pride? Paul shares this in Romans 12:

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.” Romans 12:3-5

My Struggle

It’s interesting that I have been enjoying and living by verses one and two of this chapter but never really thought about these verses until recently. I’ve come to examine my heart and really think about the fact that yes, I might be a little prideful at times. It has required a shift in my thinking, constant dependence on God, and prayer for forgiveness and grace every time I realize that I’m being prideful.

How about you? Are you cultivating a heart of humility, thinking of yourself “with sober judgment” and putting others first? Let’s take the journey together.

Do you view your interactions with others as an act of worship to God?  The Bible is full of commands of how to treat each other.  Here’s just one of many examples,

Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” Ephesians 4:25-32

In your relationships, do you worship God by choosing to:

• Build up instead of tear down? (Including building up and not tearing down even when you’re not with the person you’re talking about?)
• Pray for people that you’re struggling with instead of complaining about them?
• Forgiving and asking for forgiveness?
• Have compassion for those who don’t know Jesus instead of judgment?
• Resolving differences in your family before the sun goes down?

Let’s worship God by how we chose to respond in our relationships.

Hopefully by now you realize that one of my passions is to teach others to worship God with every aspect of their life.  Often times we equate worship with Sunday or with a particular time or thing that we go to.  But if we are to honor what God says in His word, we do this:

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Colossians 3:17

“In word or deed…”  That includes everything. So let’s look at some ways we can worship God that you might not have thought about:

Media Choices

This is one of the most important areas where we need to learn to worship God.  We are bombarded with literally thousands upon thousands of pieces of media every day.  We have a choice to turn away from some (or all) of it. How can we do this?

• Just because a TV show is popular doesn’t mean it’s going to build you up.  In fact, most popular TV will slowly fill your mind with things that cause you to change how you make decisions over time, even if you don’t realize it.  Be discerning in what you watch.  If you are prompted by your “conscience” (which is really the Holy Spirit) to turn something off, turn it off.
• Be careful what music you’re listening to.  Studies have shown that explicit content shows up on MTV once every 38 seconds.  If the music videos are showing it, it’s obvious that it’s first coming from the music that these videos are made from.  We can easily chose to not listen to something.  Change the dial from your popular secular station to the Christian station.  By no means am I suggesting that you can’t listen to “secular” music, as much of it is full of good content (think Switchfoot, P.O.D., Daughtry, etc).  It is just so important that you learn to discern what is good content, and what is not, and most of the time the popular music stations are not playing the stuff with good content.
• Movies.  Just because someone you met randomly says it’s the funniest movie this year doesn’t mean anything.  Their definition of funny could include things that we shouldn’t even be thinking about. Keep yourself safe and visit pluggedinonline before you watch a movie.

Making choices about media that honor God is an act of worship and an act of worship that should be occurring every day in our lives.  Tomorrow we will look at worshiping God in our relationships.

Did you:

• Spend some time in His Word?
• Spend some time talking with Him?
• Listen to some praise and worship music instead of the radio station you usually listen to?

When situations come up that might be slightly irritating to you, will you:

• Take time to stop and think before reacting, making sure your reaction is an accurate reflection of how a follower of Jesus should react?
• Pray for whoever might have irritated you and forgive them completely?
• Admit that you’re really the one doing the irritating and ask for forgiveness?

When you feel jealous of someone else’s car, job, wealth, whatever, will you:

• Realize just how much God has blessed you (warm house, food to eat, a job - unlike many in our world who have none of the above and even less) and thank Him for it?
• Pray to God that those who might have a little more than you would use it to glorify Him?
• Take time to actually tell the people in your life that you are so thankful for them?

What are some other ways that you are worshiping God today?  Feel free to share!