Everybody Worships

Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Psalm 95:1-5

Worship.

What comes to mind when you hear the word “worship?”

Is it an image of a place? A memory? An emotion? A style of music? A person? An experience?

Worship can be a controversial topic; that’s sad. Churches and Church people have fought over worship; that’s really sad. Except, I think people rarely, if ever, actually fight about worship even when they think they are doing so. Instead, when people “fight about worship,” they are actually fighting about quite tangential (though not unimportant) things like styles of music and practices. Worship, you see, is much deeper than what we see on the outside, something worth fighting for, not fighting about.

Worship is an overflowing from what is inside towards something on the outside, something bigger than us. Worship is an overflowing of our emotions, will and intellect towards what we find most valuable in life. Notice I didn’t say God? I said, “Towards what we find most valuable?” You see, everybody, whether they believe in God or not, worships. We all worship what is most valuable to us. And whatever that thing is, it will shape us. We all find our meaning, purpose, security and hope in the object of our worship. Or, to flip it and look at it from the other side, we all worship whatever gives us ultimate meaning, purpose, security or hope. What we worship becomes our god.

Rebecca Pippert, in her book Out of the Salt Shaker, writes, “Whatever controls us is our lord. The person who seeks power is controlled by power. The person who seeks acceptance is controlled by acceptance. We do not control ourselves. We are controlled by the lord of our lives.”

Do you agree with this statement? Disagree? Does it confuse you? Do you see this played out in your life? If this is true, what do you worship? Do you see yourself being controlled by things that you never intended to give that much power, things like achievement, family, relationships, approval or status?

This is not an academic exercise. This is hugely important. Worship is serious business, with serious consequences in all areas of your life. God gives us many, many good things, but he alone is ultimate. When we worship him, we change and what we value changes to the values of the Kingdom of God, to the values of Jesus, who alone will satisfy us if we get him and forgive us if we fail him.