Easy like Sunday Morning

“To a heart of worship, God is always the object of affection and devotion.

By Joshua January

I am a church boy. I grew up in the church and was socialized to believe that worship is something that we do on a Sunday morning. The three fast songs and three slow songs that heighten the emotions to the point where we sometimes burst out crying yet to some extend still leaves us with a feeling of emptiness. Surely there must be more to worshipping the Creator of the heavens and the earth. My desire for more of God has lead me on a path of constantly seeking and digging deeper wells of worship.

In my search for the meaning of true worship I was led to the story of Abraham where God asked him to sacrifice his son Isaac. Chasing after God and seeking Him requires denying oneself and dying to the flesh daily. Just like Abraham, even when it hurts to follow Christ, our call to worship is greater than just singing and dancing. Living a life of worship requires one to place oneself on the altar as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God (Rom 12:2). The problem these days with living sacrifices are that the flesh crawls off the alter before the fire of God can transform us. I have to admit even when I presented my body as a living sacrifice it was always about my needs first. I soon learned that the altar of sacrifice is a place of purging and not blessings. Worship should not stop when the Sunday service is over and the worship team is done and the church building is locked. Worship is a way of life! A heart of worship requires three basic acts which is obedience, separation and sacrifice.

Obedience is never popular and should not be partial. Abraham, although it pained him to obey God’s command, fully obeyed God. Abraham had no detailed map, no itinerary, no satellite or pin location yet he followed God wholeheartedly.

His obedience to God called him out of his comfort zone and today he is still referred to as the father of faith. His act of obedience led him to a place of separation. Someone once said that separation is the key to elevation. Instead of sacrificing his son, God provided him with a sacrificial lamb. I cannot begin to imagine the relieve Abraham must have felt. Come back to the heart of worship where it is all about Jesus, the centre of it all.

During these days of crisis and collective trauma, let us truly worship God who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all we could ever ask or think. No encounter with God is ever wasted; we experience His transformative power every time we choose to worship Him. Let our lives become a living testimony; a beacon of hope and light as we willingly obey God; separating ourselves from any form of distraction and becoming a living sacrifice unto Him. May He always be the object of our affection and devotion and may we worship as a response and not for a response. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!