Who gets the weight of your worship?

By Titto Thomas

Worship is possibly the most talked about word in the Christian vocabulary. Many times we talk about it without understanding what it actually means. I want to dwell on a very important facet of worship, considering it in relation to your life.

I believe worship is synonymous with serving. The desire to serve comes from a heart that wants to give of itself. At the central point of worship is giving glory. Now, what do we mean when we use the word glory? Glory literally means to GIVE WEIGHT. Ultimately what you give weight to in your heart and thought life becomes ‘god’ in these areas of your life. Tragically many times, however, not the living God who is the king of kings and the Lord of Lords , but an idol you or I may exchange for the true living and only God (by the way, if you don’t glorify him, the rocks will rise up and give the glory he is worthy of!).

HE IS WORTHY

Weight carries with it the following meaning- to give attention, to give priority, to revere etc. Now we have to start at a place where we realize that God is worthy to receive all GLORY. Brethren HE IS WORTHY. There is none like him. He is the king, the Lord over all. He has a name which is above every other name. He is the Alpha and the Omega. We could go on and on and on praising Him! There is no other person, place, or thing that can ever hope to share an iota of the glory that is due to him. He deserves all glory, not because we decide to but because he is worthy!

OPEN ONLY ON SUNDAYS!

Worship is a part of life. You can’t make God the God of our life only for 3 hours during the week,  and the rest of the time fiddle around with your idols! To give weight to him must cover all aspects of your life, not just a set apart time. To agree with the contrary would be like telling your wife “I love you very much but I can be at home only one night; the rest of the week, I have other people waiting!” Many times, sadly, isn’t this our attitude with the living God?

THE CHOICE

There are choices that we must make every day of our lives (every second actually) which determine where our priorities are. The heart of idolatry is this “ I decide who I must worship” (changing the Holy God’s image in our minds to suit our fascinations). We always have a choice whether to give glory to God or to the idols we have made for ourselves.

Practically this is a very extensive topic but let’s just consider a few areas.

IN ALL SITUATIONS

There are the everyday situations of our lives. Some are good, some are bad. But let me ask you, How do you react to them? Do you gripe and complain (over the boss, over the neighbours, over your friends, over the government) or do you say, ‘God, you are bigger than this situation. Lord, this situation is not worthy of my attention. You are. And I choose to honor you in it!’ Even through pains, we have choices whether to give weight to our pain and go all day long saying ooooh aaaaah, or to acknowledge Him. Too many go to friends and explain in detail about the pains they may be feeling in their bodies. And if our friends have no sympathy (for the slight headache that we may have), we begin to convince them until they start feeling sorry for us! In doing that, we’ve made those pains our centre of attention!  We must declare,  ‘God, you are bigger than this, this headache has a name BUT YOUR NAME IS BIGGER!’

WITH THE TONGUE

This is especially true when we pray. We give glory to our circumstances, trying to convince God that our problems are really bad. And it does not stop there! We go over to our colleagues during lunch break and tell them about all that is happening in the world, the economy in recession, inflation, military problems. Then of course, we won’t stop until we blame the government, the management, the bosses and our colleagues! We invest time giving weight to things that don’t deserve any. None of these things deserve this kind of weight or attention. Only God is. I challenge you to declare with your voice, “we have a big God”- He is bigger than inflation and he is bigger than your boss. Amen.

IN YOUR MIND

Unfortunately we have ‘rented’ our mind to every demon in town. Come on guys, it’s time to take it all back. Kick all your devilish tenants out – bed, baggage and all! With your mind, it is time to give attention to God! To give attention to his Word. We need to learn to give Him weight in our minds. To exalt and extol him in our thoughts. Only when your mind is saturated with what is weighty in Him will it overflow into actions. From Matt 12:34 and James 3:4 we understand that our actions are a result of what we fill our minds with. What do you choose to fill your minds with? What do you give weight to in your minds?

IN YOUR LIFE

The way we spend our time and the way in which we build relationships can show us where we give weight in our lives. The question is this: do you give weight to what He says in these areas?

Have you ever searched the Bible about what God has said about being a Godly parent, or a Godly child or a Godly employee or a Godly employer or a Godly businessman or a Godly husband/wife…or whatever role you play in your life? Or do you bring up children YOUR way? Do you behave at work YOUR way? Or treat your spouse YOUR way? If you long to give weight to Him and His ways, let me encourage you to search the Scriptures on what it is to be a Godly man/woman in these areas.

WHO GETS THE WEIGHT OF YOUR WORSHIP?

This question demands a response from us. Therefore consider a moment about where all your energy, time, priorities etc. are directed. Do you spend most of the time griping, complaining and cursing the world? Do you spend your time glorifying your problems and situations? Thinking about it, talking about it, even writing about it? The Bible calls these actions (thinking, talking, writing) meditation. Have your problems become your god? Have your sins become your god? With what have you replaced the only true God in your life?

I could go on and on but I think this is enough for one article. I challenge you today to exalt the living God (in your mind, speech and life) over your failures, situations and problems. Your problems do not deserve your attention, GOD DOES! May God help us to be true worshippers.

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