By Pastora Monique Lopez Ong
A French proverb once said, “A good meal ought to begin with hunger.” When you are hungry, all kinds of food look delicious and delectable. If you approach the word of God with so much hunger, then your worship is effective. Because the Lord is the only one who can satisfy your hunger.
Everybody is created for worship. That is why God made man on the 6th day. Because He wanted everything to be ready when man was made so that all he needed to do was to worship Him. God designed man to worship Him; to find the fullest expression by accepting Jesus and delighting in Him. When you worship, it is ministering to Him. Some people do not know how to please God. It is very simple: worship Him with thanksgiving and praise.
Psalm 150:6 says, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.” If you are alive, praise the Lord. It is all about Him and not about you. He should be the center of your worship. If there is anything you need to master here on earth, it is worship, because that is all you will do in heaven. When you sing to the Lord, it always goes back to His word. That is when you know it is worship. Everything you do points back to Him. God’s love language is worship and obedience. If you worship but do not obey, then your worship is in vain. Everybody knows how to worship; but what is it that you really worship? Money? Your body? Your husband? Your children? Power? When you do this, you will feel lacking in so many ways. Worship, in a way, is very tricky and deceiving. You may be unconsciously worshipping something else aside from God so you need to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal it to you. To know if you are worshipping something else is to know what is worship.
Psalms 100:1-5 says, “Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.” You will not know how to worship if you do not know the Lord. As you know and understand Him, you will realize that everything belongs to Him and revolves around Him. If you know all these truths, you will worship Him. And you will give everything back to Him who gave you everything too. You will not be standing there but give worship all you have.
Worship is your complete love, adoration and devotion to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. When you translate worship in the Bible, it means to kneel down or lay flat down as an act of honor and reverence. It is acknowledging that God is your King an you are nothing. It is humbling yourself to the Greatest One, saying that the glory belongs to God alone. How do you know that you are worshipping? Worship with all that you have, in all that you do, all the time. When you are complaining about your job, you are not worshipping anymore. When you are angry about the injustices done to you, you are not worshipping anymore too. Worship is also about Kingdom order. The husband loves the wife, the wife submits to the husband, and the children obey their parents unto the Lord - all of this is worship. Worship is everything as long as you give your heart to the Lord.
One of the greatest worshippers of all time is David. You all know his story. He was a shepherd boy and the youngest among his siblings. But all throughout his life, David loved God. When somebody insults God, he cannot just stand there and do and say nothing. 1 Samuel 17:26 says, “David asked the men standing near him, “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” David was so bold, holding on to only 5 stones while facing his gigantic enemy. His confidence in the Lord is so powerful and he loves to worship. Read the Psalms and you will understand why and how. He was called a man after God’s own heart. Acts 13:22 says, “After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.” When you worship God, He sees you, no matter who or where you are.
What kind of worshipper was David?
1. He was a broken worshipper. - Psalms 51:16-17 says, “You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.” David wrote this when the prophet Nathan rebuked him of his adultery. David was not a perfect man. He made a series of bad choices. But when he was rebuked, he admitted his mistakes and in humility, he worshipped God all the more. Many people will run away from the Lord. Not David. God grace is always sufficient. If you seek Him, repent and humble yourself, the Lord will freely forgive you and love you even more. That is where you can worship. You do not have to wait until you are perfect. You can worship the Lord in your brokenness. If you are doing something wrong, worship and God will tell you what to do. He will set you free and deliver you. The Lord loves broken worshippers. He works best when you are broken because He can make you whole. He loves when you are broken because it is that time that He can fix and restore you.
2. He was a focused and committed worshipper. - Psalms 63:1-5 says, “You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.” When David was singing this, he was running for his life in the dessert and his enemies were running after him. Do you have any idea how he was feeling? He was the king yet his future seemed so unsure. But nothing changed with david and his love and worship for the Lord. Some people stop worshipping the minute something goes wrong or when a prayer goes unanswered. The problem is that you are focused on the problem. Focus on God and you will make it. No matter what happens, worship Him.
3. He was a passionate and all out worshipper. - Give your worship everything you have. Sing and dance to your heart’s content. Do not mind the people around you. Remember you only have an audience of One. The joy of the Lord cannot be contained.
David went all out for his Lord. You are worshipping the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Celebrate before the Lord even if it makes people uncomfortable. 2 Samuel 6:12-15 says, “Now King David was told, “The Lord has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and everything he has, because of the ark of God.” So David went to bring up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with rejoicing. When those who were carrying the ark of the Lord had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf. Wearing a linen ephod, David was dancing before the Lord with all his might, while he and all Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets.”
David was fully engaged. It was all heart, soul, mind and strength. You can see what is inside him because he physically manifested it. It was overflowing from the inside out. Do not care if people do not approve as long as it pleases God.
4. He was a worshipper until the very end. - Even in his old age, he wanted to build a temple for the Lord. He was a warrior and many people died in his hands. God said his son was going to build it. Was David discouraged? No. He prepared everything needed to build the temple and passed it on to Solomon so that he could build it instead.
Pass it on. Pass on your worship and do not be selfish about it. 1 Chronicles 28:8-10 says, “So now I charge you in the sight of all Israel and of the assembly of the Lord, and in the hearing of our God: Be careful to follow all the commands of the Lord your God, that you may possess this good land and pass it on as an inheritance to your descendants forever. “And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands every desire and every thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever. Consider now, for the Lord has chosen you to build a house as the sanctuary. Be strong and do the work.”
What kind of worshipper are you? What are you doing so that you can worship God actively? Are you part of a small group? Worship God by serving Him. Volunteer at church. There are no credentials in serving the Lord. The pandemic has gone too far. Activate and re-activate your commitment to God. That is how you worship.
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