A Life of Worship...

Deut. 10.12 “Now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require from you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,” 13 “and to keep the LORD’s commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good?”

I think we should ask ourselves what sits on the throne of our heart. This time in which we live is indeed exciting. We are seeing the fulfillment of scripture before our very eyes. But, are we really seeking His kingdom first, though? Am I submitting my life to His purpose and plan? Am I really living a life of worship? I must say that I still struggle in areas of my life when it comes to submission to His plan. I still forget sometimes that it is His timing, His plan. I would seek sometimes to push things along, if you will, maybe before I am ready, out of step with His timing for my life.

I believe it can be traced back to our worship. A life of worship will place us in step with what He is doing, where He is taking us. Let me explain why. Our worship of Him is relational. A life of worship of the Father will mean we are in relationship with the Father. I love what Pastor Hal has preached about God's sovereignty and might. It is impossible for me to know God exhaustively, but we can know Him relationally. That is an amazing truth when you really think of it. I have a relationship with my wife and children. It is very hard to imagine that I could ever have an exhaustive knowledge of them in this life. Now imagine God and our finite understanding. Scripture even says that we see as through a mirror darkly…

Now imagine that I studied the “exhaustive” biography of Dana Farmer to gain knowledge of who she is, but never met her personally. I might know many things about her, but I would never know her the way I do having spent seven years in a relationship with her. Our worship is relational. A life of worship submits to the words of the Father, to the Son who is the Word made Flesh, to His Spirit- walks with Him. He has revealed His nature and character to us in His word, and sees us through every aspect (Philippians 1.6).

William Temple was the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1942- 1944. This is how he describes worship:

It is submission of all our nature to God-

It is quickening of conscience by His holiness, nourishment of mind by His truth, purifying of imagination by his beauty, opening of the heart to his love, submission of will to His purpose. All of this gathered up in adoration is the greatest expression of which we are capable.

That is the way I want to worship Him.

-Chris Farmer