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!

How do you speak to people you come in contact with?  Do you think about the fact that even little things we say can have a huge impact on people?  Paul has two specific ways of worshiping God with the way we speak to people.  The first is how we speak to outsiders, or unbelievers:

Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.” Colossians 4:5-6.

“Seasoned with salt” is in interesting phrase.  It refers to salt being a preservative.  We are to use our speech to preserve a good attitude towards those we come in contact that don’t know Jesus.  We don’t answer them in judgment or condemnation, but with an answer full of grace.

The second way we can worship with the way we speak is to everyone:

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.” Ephesians 4:29.

Does what you say to others fit the occasion?  Is it something that is good for building up?  Do you realize that when you gossip about someone not only are you solidifying your bad attitude toward them, but drawing others into that same attitude?

Let’s worship Jesus by honoring Him with everything we say today.  Find a way to build someone up today!

Well, it has been a light couple of weeks of blogging from me and I apologize for that! Family’s been coming first lately as well as getting the house ready for some company this weekend. I hope to get back into the swing of blogging again full-on next week, but there will be a few posts this weeek.

You’ve probably seen this story already, but it was brought up at devotions this morning and man, it’s powerful. While the story doesn’t mention if anyone involved is a follower of Jesus, it’s good for us to see that these sorts of things still happen in the world. It is also good for us to remember that we should be the people that are making these things happen. Enjoy.