What do you think of first when you think of worship? For most people, it would be the type of singing we do in church: singing songs to and about God. And our churches make it so easy to believe that singing is the only time to worship because that is exactly how they label it. They separate the service into times of worship, the sermon, prayer, and then maybe a missionary update or communion on certain Sundays. They also have worship nights where the main focus is just singing. They may even show videos of people worshipping in other parts of the world, but the videos often only show people singing. Worship is so much more than just singing, though. Worship is also reading our Bibles, praying, gathering for church on Sundays, gathering with other believers and studying the Bible together, and whatever else we do with our hearts in a posture of worship. 

Worship is a heart attitude. We can easily fall into worshipping something or someone other than God, even without realizing it. We must be diligent to remember that people and things are finite and do not deserve to be put on a pedestal above the God of the universe who created everyone and everything. He is the only deserving recipient of our worship and when we forget that, we allow people and things to take His spot in our hearts.  

We are commanded to worship God and only God; there is no wiggle room to worship anything or anyone else. Matthew 6:24 says, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” In this verse, money is used as an example of something that can easily distract us from God. We can replace the word money with anything in our lives that distracts us from worshipping the Lord, such as our favorite pastor or celebrity, status, friends, family, significant other, job, phone, school, future plans, accomplishments, and so many more. Our worship is directed at whatever has the highest spot in our hearts. 

Do you know the story of the golden calf in Exodus 32? That story is a perfect example of a whole people group who forgot that God alone deserved their worship. Moses had left his people and gone up the mountain where God was giving the Ten Commandments, one of which was to have no other gods and to not make any graven images or statues to them. While Moses was on the mountain with God, the people got impatient so Aaron gathered all the gold from everyone and created a golden calf that they called their god who had brought them out of captivity in Egypt. And they did that while their leader Moses was literally talking to the God of the universe (who ACTUALLY brought them to where they were). Can you imagine getting so impatient with someone for talking to God for too long that you decide to create your own god and convince yourself that the statue you just made delivered you from slavery? 

Now that is an extreme example, but aren’t we the same in so many ways? If God does not do what we want in the time frame that we want it done, we can be so quick to get mad at Him and turn our reliance to ourselves or others. Even if things are going our way, it can be easy to forget to give God the credit and keep Him at the forefront of our lives. When we give in and allow other people and things to be put before God in our hearts, as we talked about a few weeks ago, we are living for ourselves instead of living for the glory of God. 

We were designed to worship. Everyone worships something or someone, whether they realize it or not. Other religions have their own gods to worship or they worship the universe or whatever/whoever they think deserves their worship. Even people who do not believe in religion have beliefs and ideas of what causes things to happen, whether karma, coincidence, fate, or whatever else they believe. In those beliefs, there is something that holds the top spot in their hearts and that is what they worship. 

Have you ever gone to church and just gone through the motions? You sing the songs and listen to the sermon, maybe even take notes, but you are not engaged? If singing songs was the definition of worship, you would be able to check that off your to do list for the week, right? I don’t know about you, but I am so glad that songs are not the only way to worship because I am sure that we are not engaged in what we are singing more than we would like to admit. Maybe singing really is not your favorite way to worship, that’s fine. We have so many other ways that we can worship the Lord in our everyday lives! 

What so often distracts you or takes the top spot in your heart above God? What do you do when you notice that your heart is not focused on God? How do you realign your heart to worship Him alone? 

Abbi