“I will weorthscipe with all of my heart”

Last Sunday night with our ‘Redefine’ youth Bible study evening we looked at the statement ‘Everyone is a worship leader‘, and this blog comes out of the teaching given during the evening.

The title of this blog comes from David Ruis’ song ‘I will worship‘, but I have inserted the Old English spelling of the word worship: ‘weorth-scipe‘ or ‘worth-ship’.  This is the state or quality of having value or worth.  Or to convey the worthiness of something.  So we can look at worship of God as being conveying or acknowledging the worthiness or value of God.

When we turn to the first time that the word worship is mentioned in the Bible, we see the Hebrew word שָׁחָה – ‘shachah’ used.  This is in Genesis 22 when Abraham has been asked by God to sacrifice his only son Isaac; a son that God had promised to Abraham. The hebrew word here means to ‘bow down’ or ‘prostrate oneself’ before a superior or God. Abraham’s worship was not singing songs, doing a dance or painting a picture.  His worship was a sacrifice. His worship was obedience in the face of adversity. His worship was doing what God had asked him to do.

Worship comes from a place where we know that God is God and we are not.

We naturally bow down before our amazing God in the awe and reverence for all He has done for us and because of how great He is.

This awe and worship leads to action and obedience, as in the case of Abraham.

In the book of Isaiah, we see God paint a picture of the kind of worship He looks for: “Set free those who are held by chains without any reason…. Break every evil chain. Share your food with hungry people. Provide homeless people with a place to stay. Give naked people clothes to wear. Provide for the needs of your own family… Stop pointing your finger at others as if they had done something wrong. Stop saying harmful things about them…Satisfy the needs of those who are crushed. Then my blessing will light up your darkness...You will be like a garden that has plenty of water... ” Isaiah 58 (excerpts)

God doesn’t want long ceremonies or religious parades; He wants us to love Him and love each other.

Simple.

It all boils down to relationship and focus.  What or who we spend time with and on not only shows what is important to us, but it also shapes us.  So, if we spend time focussing on God, talking with Him in prayer and worship, we will naturally want to spend more time with Him; to use a quote I recently discovered; “As you know Jesus more, you naturally love Him more. The less you know of Him, the less you love. To know Jesus is to love Him.” – Eric Samuel Timm.

Our worship will direct and lead us in the way we live and in turn this will impact upon the lives of those around us.

So it can be said that ‘Everyone is a worship leader’

Let’s lead more people to know and discover our great God, so that they too can give Him ‘weorthscipe’.

post about worship following on from Sunday eve’s Redefine.