They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!'" - Exodus 32:8
In April during our daily Bible reading we spent a week focusing on worship. Our readings encouraged us to worship with gladness, to put aside inhibitions and to be joyful. We were also reminded that when we come to The Lord in truth, God meets us wherever we are and inspires us to worship. The week ended with a reading from the book of Leviticus.
As one of the books of Law in the Bible, a lot of folks do not find it to be as “inspiring” as some of the other books we find in the Bible, but there is much we can learn from studying it. In the first seven chapters of Leviticus we read how God defines worship. Many of the rituals we read of in the time of Leviticus seem really strange to us today but lead us to the heart of what God wants from us in our worship. The rituals that were laid out for the people reminded the Israelites of just how much God had given them and allowed a means for them to remember, to celebrate and to teach their children what God had done. God took special care to help his people be holy and taught the people that what he simply required for worship was an offering of one’s very best. Although God took steps for us to be made right with him after our sin, we need to do our part to be in covenant with God.
Our worship, when done the way God desires, allows us to put our focus on God and to give him our best - through our prayers, our presence in worship, our money, our sacrificial gifts, our service to others, and our witness to the community. Not simply our leftovers of our time, financial resources, or our energy. Worship allows us to remember whose we are and what he sacrificed to make a way for us to be made right with him. Let us prayerfully evaluate if we are living out our end of the covenant - are we giving OUR best, or are we giving from our leftovers?
The Psalmist asked the question, "What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me?" Then the Psalmist answered his own question, "I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice and call on the name of the Lord and I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people in the courts of the house of the Lord in your midst O Jerusalem." (Psalm 116:12-13)
That is how GOD defines worship.
Let us ask ourselves, what is my worship costing me? What am I willing to sacrifice so that I may worship in the house of The Lord? And am I willing to give my life to him as a living sacrifice?
May God help us to examine our worship.
~ Rev.Pat
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