WORSHIP – IS IT OPTIONAL?
“Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs.” Psalm 100:1-2
After reading this verse, does it seem like worshipping God is optional? No, it clearly commands worship. Worship isn’t an option – it’s an obligation! Worshipping God is not just something we can do only when we feel like it, or when it is convenient, or if we happen to remember to. Worship is a requirement for the Christian life, not something that can be brushed aside. Why do we not place a greater importance and value on such a clear commandment from our Lord God?
A.W. Tozer puts it like this in his book, Real Worship: “I believe a local church exists to do corporately what each Christian believer should be doing individually – and that is to worship God. It is to show forth the excellencies of Him who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. It is to reflect the glories of Christ ever shining upon us through the ministries of the Holy Spirit.” Then Tozer goes on to make this bold statement – “I am going to say something to you that will sound strange. It even sounds strange to me as I say it, because we are not used to hearing it within our Christian fellowships. We are saved to worship God. All that Christ has done for us in the past and all that He is doing now leads to this one end. If we are denying this truth and if we are saying that worship is not really important, we can blame our attitudes for the great wave of arrested development in our Christian fellowships.”
Wow. If Christ died for us to be able to worship God, I think that worship deserves more of our attention. Let’s get out of the mindset that worship is only something we do Sunday morning, and give Him our love and adoration in everything we do Monday through Saturday as well. Let’s not think that worship is simply a “warm-up” for the sermon, but instead let’s rejoice in telling God how much we love Him alongside our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Psalm 150:6 says, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!” Hebrews 13:15 says, “Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.” 1 Chronicles 16:29 commands us to, “Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering and come before him! Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.”
These are just a few examples of all of the commandments in scripture for us to worship and praise God. God makes it crystal clear in His word that worship is not an option—it is an obligation. Let us, as the Church, be obedient to this call to worship.