Written by Lewis and Sarah Allen. Lewis is a contemporary pastor and Sarah a teacher and women’s ministry leader. This is an excerpt from their work: “Resilient Faith: Learning to Rely on Jesus in the Struggles of Life.”
In some circles, it’s been fashionable to downgrade the place of the weekly worship gathering. The reasoning is that God wants all of our lives to be worship, as he has redeemed every area to be filled with his praise and service. After all, doesn’t Paul tell us that, whatever we do, we are to do it “to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31)? Surely, then, worship can be working, golfing, traveling, sleeping in, and everything else besides? So let’s not lift the Sunday experience higher than the Bible does, or so goes the popular wisdom. Some might say, “But how much do you worship God when you focus on the golf ball? How conscious are you of the Lord and his goodness, and happily responding to him in thanksgiving when you’re navigating a stressful relationship at work?” Yes, these are real areas for you to develop your awareness of the Lord and satisfaction in him; but worship is a conscious, intentional bringing of mind, heart, and body to the Lord as we praise, thank, pray to, listen to, and enjoy him. That’s what the Bible teaches us in both Testaments. In the vast majority of its uses, the main word for “worship” in the New Testament speaks of the church on earth and in heaven praising and adoring God together. It is something Christians stop everything else in order to do. We turn aside from the good (enjoying God in all of his gifts) to focus on the best (enjoying conscious fellowship with him in the gathering and shared worship of fellow believers). This worship strengthens faith. We worship, and our faith is deepened. We don’t wait until we have deep faith before we worship God. We take the little we believe, the little we know, the thanks and the praise we have—aware that it feels so little—and we bring it to him. And he meets us.
Prayer:
Written by William Bright (1824-1901), an English ecclesiastical historian and Anglican priest.
O most loving Father, you want us to give thanks for all things, to dread nothing but losing you, and to cast all our anxiety on you because you care for us. Preserve us from faithless fears and worldly anxieties and grant that no clouds of this mortal life may hide from us the light of that love which is immortal, and which you have shown us in your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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