Fred and I are involved in "leading the worship" in our church which means we lead the corporate singing of our praise and worship to God.
Some people see this as all that worship consists of but we also need to remember that
Worship is an act of devotion towards God
So when I look at it like that then it is obvious that as a Christian I should automatically love worship.
If we consider our purpose on earth (as mentioned in Why We Worship 1 ) which is nothing to do with all the Purpose books I see around us - but simply what the reason we are alive is then we see that
Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever
But because we are human and imperfect, I know that we are not immediately drawn in to worship and it may feel completely alien to some of us.
One of the reasons I love worship is basically because I love singing and we find it easier to worship God in a song, don't we - someone else has done the hard work of writing the words and arranging the music and we just have to read the words listen to the tune and sing along.
But can't we do other things that are very easy?
That's why I'm going to take the opportunity to give you some help by thinking about
5 Things We Can Use To Worship
- The Bible
- Prayer
- Thoughts
- Songs
- Actions
1. We can use the Bible as a great means of Worship.
Reading and memorizing God's Word is a great and easy way to worship God.
Either on our own in our quiet times or in church among others.
Read out verses in worship to God
Here we are reading out His Word which is powerful and in doing so we are agreeing with what God has said.
As we ourselves read from the bible we are focused on the truth in those passages and greatly encouraged by what we read, also if we read aloud in corporate worship services everyone gains from hearing His Word which is Truth and because He never changes then neither will His Word.
Read out Bible Verses that are simply words of Worship
Here we are reading what is recorded in the bible of what others have said in worship and in repeating these words we can be in agreement with them.
Read out Bible Verses about God's Love
Here we are reading and hence concentrating on the Love of God.
You may be further encouraged by
10 Bible Verses of Encouragement about God's Love
Read out Bible Verses about God's Mercy & Grace
Read out Bible Verses about God's Mercy & Grace
Here we are reading and concentrating on the Mercy of God.
Read out Bible Verses about the nature and attributes of God
Here we are reading and concentrating on the very essence of God
You may be further encouraged by this series of short posts on
Why We Worship which is fully based around the Attributes of God
Read out Bible Verses about Jesus
Here we are reading verses about our Saviour and basking in all that He has done for us.
Here we are reading verses which are telling God that we will Bless Him, Praise Him, Obey Him and His Word.
Read out Bible Verses encouraging ourselves and others to worship God
Here we are reading Bible verses written by the apostles (other followers of God) to encourage us all to worship
2. We can use Prayer as a great means of Worship.
Talking to God in Prayer is a great and easy way to worship Him.
Again either on our own in our quiet times or in church among others.
Praising God in Prayer
We are talking to God in acknowledgement of His Greatness.
Thanking God in Prayer
We are talking to God about the wonderful things He has done for us
and how He has answered our petitions.
3. We can use Our Thoughts as a great means of Worship.
Thinking about God Regularly is a great and easy way to worship Him.
Thinking about God Regularly is a great and easy way to worship Him.
Recognising just how He is is the one we can depend on at all times.
and let's not leave out what we started with
4. We can use Song as a great means of Worship.
Singing to God is a great and easy way to worship Him.
Again either on our own in our quiet times or in church among others.
Singing all those wonderful hymns that have been written throughout the ages and all the more recent songs and choruses mean we are praising and worshiping God.
Also at the same time we are learning and memorizing His Word which is so often contained in the verses of the hymns and learning doctrine.
We can Write our own Songs and Sing our own Songs.
We can Wait in the Presence of God and receive new Words and Songs from Him.
We can Wait in the Presence of God and receive new Words and Songs from Him.
We can follow the example of the Psalmists and others as they encouraged themselves and others to sing unto God.
5. We can use Actions as a great means of Worship.
O sing unto the LORD a new song: sing unto the LORD,
all the earth.
Psalm 96:1
O sing unto the LORD a new song; for he hath done
marvellous things:
Psalm 98:1
Sing unto the LORD a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, ye that go down to the sea, and all that is therein;
the isles,
and the inhabitants thereof.
Isaiah 42:10
Then we should Progress to other Forms of Worship we may not find so Easy to start with.
5. We can use Actions as a great means of Worship.
- We can Obey the Word of God.
- We can Tell others about His Love and Work in our Lives.
- We can Write our own Praises and Speak our own Praises.
- We can Memorize His Word so that we always have it in our thoughts and ready to teach to others.
- We can help others to Memorize His Word
- We can show His Love to others
- We can encourage others to to Sing unto the Lord
- We can teach the children to learn about God and His Word through Songs
We started off by saying that
Worship is an act of devotion towards God
and
Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever
So let's glorify God and enjoy being in His presence as we worship God and teach and encourage others to do the same.
