Daily Manna – February 22, 2016
Topic: Worship defines our purpose
Scripture: Then those who were in the boat came and worshipped Him, saying, “Truly You are the Son of God.” (Matt 14:33)
Note: Worship comes from 2 English words, ‘worth’ and ‘ship’. So worship is the quality of having worth or of being worthy. When we worship, we are saying that God has worth, that He is worthy. Worship means to declare worth or to attribute worth. In biblical terms we do 3 things. We praise God, speak or sing about how good and powerful God is.
Worship is the purpose for which we are called. 1Peter 2:9, “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.” We are called for the purpose of praising and worshipping God; declaring that God is worthy, worth more than everything else put together.
In both Hebrew and Greek, there are 2 major kinds of words for worship. The first means to bow down, to kneel, to put one’s face down as an act of respect and submission. Our body language must demonstrate our willingness to do whatever God wants us to do. The other biblical word for worship is to serve. It carries the idea of sacrifice to God, for that is our reasonable service (Rom 12:1).
There’s a worship that expresses the heart and a worship that involves the mind, and a worship that involves the body. There’s a worship that is giving praise upward, a worship that is receiving instructions from above, and a worship that carries out instructions from God in the world around us.
We need to do all the 3 aspects of worship. Of what use is praising God on our lips through speaking without ever listening to what He says or doing what He says? When we only speak worship without listening or doing, the question arises whether what we’re saying from our lips is expressing what we believe in our hearts.
Food for thought: All talk and no action does not show God the respect He deserves. Actions speak louder than words. We must let our actions reflect the worth of God in our lives.
Declaration: God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. (John 4:24)
© Author: Rev Fred Aboe
