Day Five: Worshiping God

When you think of worship, what comes to mind? Hymns or choruses? Singing in church or alone with your favorite CD/station? Maybe David with his harp while tending sheep or dancing in a linen ephod while leading the priests who carry the Ark into Jerusalem.

· What acts of worship flow freely, coming from a place of passion and joy within you?

The word, worship, simply means attributing worth to someone or something. We attribute worth by giving our time, talents, and treasure to a person or thing. In essence, we worship someone or something nearly every moment of our lives. That doesn’t mean it’s wrong to work a full-time job, shop for groceries, or pay bills. But how do we incorporate worship to—attribute worth to—God with our everyday lives?

· What actions in daily life do you think could attribute worth to God?

· How is this answer the same or different than your answer to the first question?

Hezekiah’s Worship

Hezekiah was passionate about worship when he assumed Judah’s throne. Within the first month of his reign, he reestablished pleasing worship at Yahweh’s Temple and rekindled a fire in Judeans’ hearts to obey the laws that had been too long neglected. Their worship was comprised of music, sacrifice, service, and the confession of sins—completely different than worship in Christianity. Or was it?

New Testament Worship

When Jesus spoke of worship to a Samaritan woman, He emphasized the internal transaction over the external location, saying true worship occurs through the Spirit and in truth (Greek word used here for truth, alētheia, implies no softening of facts; the whole truth).

· What internal transaction must take place to “attribute worth” to God through the Spirit and in truth?

· Is this a one-time transaction or a recurring discipline?

Acts recorded the earliest activities of the Christian church as teaching, eating, praising, and praying. Paul described worship as presenting ourselves as living sacrifices, rather than the literal killing of a lamb or bull on the Temple altar. He also added the use of spiritual gifts and singing as aspects of worship that build up the Church.

· How is “building up the Church” ultimately attributing worth to God?

· How will you intentionally worship today?

Fuel for the Soul:

· 2 Samuel 6:13-14

· 2 Chronicles 29:1-5;15-31

· John 4:21-24

· Acts 2:42-47

· Romans 12

· 1 Corinthians 14:26; Ephesians 5:18-19; Colossians 3:16