What Have You Been Worshipping Lately?

Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:33)

God made us for worship; and because we are wired for worship, we all must have something as our object of worship. I am not speaking about the two-hour block on the weekend reserved for church service. Worship is not simply a part of your life; it is your life. David said, “I will praise the Lord at all times; my mouth will continually praise him” (Psalm 34:1 NET). For the Christian, Christ is to be our object of worship, twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year.The Bible makes it clear that every one of us must live for something, and that “something” will come always under one of two headings: the Creator or some created thing. We run into trouble when we look to a created thing to do for us what only God can do; we lose our way and water down our witness.

As a pastor, I am often confronted by people who think that Jesus has no right to ask for our undivided worship. What they fail to recognize is that everything asks for our undivided worship: our careers . . . our families . . . our possessions . . . our bodies . . . our hobbies. If we are not worshipping our Creator, we will be worshipping some created thing, and that thing cannot and will not support the weight of being our savior. That thing simply cannot meet us in our deepest place of need. It will never satisfy the deepest desires of the heart. Only Jesus can do this, because only Jesus is always loving, always forgiving, always constant, and never changing.

The American essayist David Foster Wallace was right when he insisted that “There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.” So the question that you and I must ask ourselves is this: What have you been worshipping lately?

Remember, God created us in such a way as to never allow any created thing to satisfy the deepest needs of the heart. Worship money and you will always need more. Worship your body and you will always feel flawed. Worship power and you will be dogged by fear and insecurity. God made sure that every created thing will leave us wanting, and in wanting we should return to the only One who can fill us to overflowing with the meaning, purpose, satisfaction, and happiness we all so deeply desire: Jesus!

This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!