Encouragement

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Once I was having a conversation with a friend, who was telling me about the singing in her church. She referred to the singing as worship. David writes Psalm 100 and verse 2 says, “Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.” However, he also writes other psalms about worship to the Lord that have nothing to do with songs. For example, Psalm 96:9 says, “Worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness; tremble before him, all the earth.”

Worship, obviously, encompasses more than just singing songs. The apostle Paul writes in Romans 12:1, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.” That is not easy. My body is always going through disease progression, and I am consistently in pain and tired. However, I worship God by allowing other people to get me up in the morning, going through the day with the pain and the fatigue, writing, trying to sleep at night, and every other ability He designed me with and for. By choosing to live the life He intended I am proclaiming the greatness of God.

I have always been encouraged by the life of Job. He gives a real picture of what it means to offer your body as a living sacrifice, and he shows how to worship God in the midst of struggles and hardship. In the book of Job, he loses his children, his fortune, and his health all in the attempt of Satan trying to make him choose to turn his back on God. After he had lost his children and his fortune, Job 1:20-21 says, ‘At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said:
"Naked I came from my mother's womb,
and naked I will depart.
The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away;
may the name of the LORD be praised."’
Unfortunately, even after Job said this, his losses only grew. Soon afterward Satan approached God about removing Job's physical health as well. When his health was gone, Job's wife tells him to “curse God and die” (Job 2:9). Three of Job's friends show up and try to convince Job that God has abandoned him. Job doesn't abandon God though, and was rewarded many times over for that.

Jesus, also, gives an example of Satan using circumstances to allow us to choose to reject worshiping God. Satan takes Jesus to the top of a mountain and says He can have the world if He will worship him (Satan). It seems strange that Satan would tell Jesus (also the Creator) that, but remember God is now in the form of a man. And men fall prey to things like greed and selfishness. However, Jesus doesn't. In Matthew 4:10, ‘Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.' "” Our worship, regardless of what it is, is only to be for the Lord -- no one else.

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