Seed for the Harvest
The relevance of worship

For many in our day, worship appears to be a totally irrelevant activity. Sleeping in or catching up on household chores may seem to be a more worthwhile way to spend a Sunday morning in our stressful times.

But forsaking regular worship in this way is a mistake.

Worship is the most relevant activity you can be engaged in. And it’s the regular, faithful worship of God that is critical to reversing the current slide of our culture.

How can this be? How can an activity that appears so optional actually be necessary to our well-being?

First, worship is critical because of the way God made us. Due to the prevailing evolutionary worldview of our time, man is thought of as homo sapiens – man the thinker. Indeed, the ability to think at the level humans do sets them apart, but even more basic to man’s nature is that he is a worshiper – he is homo adorans.

As worshipers, people will always live with something at the center of their lives. And, whatever is at the center will shape them and push them in certain directions. God made us to have Him at the center of our lives, and to live with anything else there is idolatry. The regular worship of God is critical in that it helps to keep us from idolatry and forms us into what God wants us to be.

Second, worship is also critical because God blesses on the basis of ethics. It’s widely believed that the way to the good life is through power, so the whole of society is caught up in manipulating forces to their advantage. But God is not impressed by the power of men. He commands men to obey Him, and it is those who do He blesses.

The Bible says, “You shall walk in the way which the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may be well with you. . .” (Dt.5:33). Regular worship is critical here because it serves to reign us back in to the direction we should go. Apart from worship, we stray easily and do not keep His commands.

Finally, worship is critical because it brings us the renewal we need. God is always faithful to the covenant promises He makes with His people, and He desires to bless us. But we do not keep the way that He calls us to live in, and we suffer for it. Because of this, we need His renewing grace.

This renewal is given freely by God through faithful worship. In worship, God calls us into His presence, cleanses us of our sin, sets us apart anew with His Word, feeds us and shows us His favor at His table, and sends us out into the world again with His blessing so that we can serve Him faithfully.

There is no question that we need God’s renewal. It can’t be denied that we need His grace to walk in His ways and be blessed by Him. There is no doubt that we need Him at the center of our lives to be shaped into His likeness.

But how are these needs met? They are fulfilled through worship, and because of it, engaging in the regular worship of God is not only relevant, it’s essential.

Questions or comments? Email davidjbostromATgmail.com or visit his blog at dbostrom.wordpress.com.

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