Define Worship

[Patrick Mulvehill]

Sometimes I find myself getting tangled up in trying to define worship. But the struggle to give the next clever definition is put to rest when I am reminded that the Word of God is a perfect and complete Word – it lacks nothing.  And if worship is a mandate of God, then we need look no further than the words of God Himself to figure out what we must do when we are called to worship. Romans 12:1 says, “I urge you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present yourselves as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God. This is your spiritual service of worship.”

Hold up. Living sacrifices = worship? To be a worshiper means sacrificing our lives in order to present ourselves to God? Seems like a steep order. A generous offering. The ultimate offering, even. Is that really what we are called to do in order to act out our biblical worship? In a word, yes!

Giving our life as a sacrifice may play out in each of our lives in different ways, but there is a common denominator that defines sacrificial living for all of us: surrender and obedience. It may not look like the death of a martyr in a foreign country. It may look like a guy who uses his Saturdays to coach a boy’s basketball team, just because he wants to show the fruit of the Spirit to those young lives.

There are so many ways to worship, but at the heart of every offering is a deep work of surrendering our lives to God for His purposes and not our own. Let’s get going with it. Enough with our own agenda. Let’s worship the Lord together by embracing His.

- Travis Cottrell