Episode #301 Rethinking Our Approach to Worship – Unforced Rhythms of Grace

Hey, friends. Starting today and for the next few episodes, we're gonna be talking about worship as a spiritual discipline, as us responding to God and engaging with our whole selves in worship.

One of the things I've noticed in myself and I've observed in others around me, is that when it comes to things like prayer or reading our Bible or worship, we can tend to think about them as activities we are initiating. I am initiating conversation with God. I'm sitting down and I'm opening my Bible because he wants me to, so I'm taking that step. I'm attending a church service and I'm participating by engaging in singing or raising my hands or standing, kneeling, whatnot in worship. But all of these activities are actually responses to God's initiative. He has always been and is always moving on our behalf. He is at work, his kingdom is here, and so we aren't ever initiating the things. God is the initiator. We are then engaging and responding to what he has already started.

Now, I'm thinking about that today in this context of worship, and I'm gonna read Romans chapter 12 verse 1 for us. Pay attention to what God has already started and how we as believers get to then respond in worship:

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” (Romans 12:1)

Now, there are two areas in this one verse that jump out at me showing me God's initiative, that's already happened. The first one is in view of God's mercy. In my perspective, through the lens of the mercy God has already given me, withholding from me the bad that I deserve, I can then offer myself in worship.

And the second one is actually the first word in this verse, therefore. This means because of the thing that came before this. So in the original letter to the church in Rome, they didn't have chapter breaks and verse numbers. Those are things that help us. So I'm gonna flip back to the end of Romans 11 to see what is being talked about as the reason for offering ourselves and our bodies as acts of worship. And it's talking about the mystery of Israel's salvation and how God has offered mercy to all of us. In chapter 11, verse 33, it says, “Oh, the depths of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!” In skipping down to verse 36 it says, “For from him and through him and to him are all things, to him be glory forever. Amen.”

He has already initiated. Therefore, we can present our bodies as living sacrifices.

In Richard Foster's book, Celebration of Discipline, he says “Worship is the human response to the divine initiative."

That's what we're talking about here. Because God is the initiator, there is so much that we can worship him for in response. We can praise him for who he is and thank him for what he has done. We can offer sacrifices of worship and praise and gratitude toward him. And that might come in formats that we're already familiar with in songs or dance or raising our hands or sitting in stillness before him. And it can also come in sacrifice, in service, in other actions that we can take as we eat and drink and go about our daily lives serving him, honoring him, bringing glory to him.

And so the invitation before each of us is to talk with God about what worship we can offer him today, and then to respond to him accordingly.

And so here's that question you can take to him:

God, how can I respond to you in worship today?

Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

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