The Privilege Of Worship
Worship is loving God. When His disciples asked Jesus what was the most important commandment, He said, "To love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind..."
It is a beautiful honor and privilege to love and worship our Creator. We were created for this very purpose.
"Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created." ~Revelation 4:11
Although we cannot see God, we can know Him through His creation and through the revelation of His word.
"In the past God spoke to our ancestors at many different times and in many different ways through the prophets.
In these last days he has spoken to us through his Son.
God made his Son responsible for everything. His Son is the one through whom God made the universe.
His Son is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact likeness of God’s being.
He holds everything together through his powerful words." ~Hebrews 1:1-3 (GW)
God cherishes us and wants very much for us to fellowship with Him. The Bible says He takes pleasure in our worship. But if we truly love God we will come to Him and worship Him the way He has asked us to.
Jesus told the woman at the well in Samaria, "Indeed, the time is coming, and it is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. The Father is looking for people like that to worship him.
God is a spirit. Those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23-24)
Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father but by Me." John 14:6
There is a story about two brothers named Cain and Abel in the book of Genesis. Each one brought God a sacrifice, an offering of worship. But God looked with favor on Abel's offering and not on Cain's.
"And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord.
Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering." ~(Genesis 4:3-5)
This story has always intrigued me because I always wondered why God liked Abel's offering better than Cain's. Not until I studied the scriptures and learned why Jesus had to die for my sins did I understand this story.
Abel's offering was a blood sacrifice. He killed the firstborn of his flock. He was obviously aware that a blood sacrifice was the kind of sacrifice that God required to atone for sin.
According to Hebrews 9:22
"And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission."
Cain ignored God's requirement and chose to worship God in his own way. Perhaps his offering had cost him a lot of hard work in preparation, labor, time, and expense. He was furious at God for not being pleased with what he had chosen to offer him.
"So Cain became very angry and felt rejected." ~Genesis 4:5 (NCV)
True love seeks to please the object of its love, not the self.
Cain was not seeking to please God though he may have put a lot of time and effort into what may have been a beautiful sacrifice.
When we are seeking to please God, we will worship Him in the way He has asked us to, according to His terms.
Abel chose to submit to God, to love God, to do what God desired.
"It was by faith that Abel obeyed God and brought an offering that pleased God more than Cain’s offering did. God accepted Abel and proved it by accepting his gift; and though Abel is long dead, we can still learn lessons from him about trusting God." (Hebrews 11:4 TLB)
The Bible says, "You who love the Lord, hate sin."
Sin is ugly. Our sins are what nailed Jesus to the cross.
God the Father had to send His spotless firstborn Son into the world to be a holy sacrifice for all the sins of mankind~like Abel's sacrifice of his firstborn flocks with the fat offerings for his own sins.
John the Baptist called Jesus Christ "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." John 1:29
It is God's grace that saves us through the spotless blood of His Son Jesus Christ, not our good works or any other thing we do to try and please God.
"God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.
Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it." ~ Ephesians 2:8-9
Cain wanted to worship God in his own way, fellowship with God on his own terms. But that is not truly loving God. His anger poured out into jealous rage against his brother Abel mistakenly believing that God loved him more. But the scripture says:"God does not play favorites." Romans 2:11 (GW)
God loved Cain every bit as much as he loved Abel. In fact, St. Augustine wrote that God loves each of us as if we were the only one He had to love.
It was Cain who did not truly love God. For after God rejected his sacrifice he went and murdered his brother Abel.
"Don’t be like Cain. He was a child of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did Cain murder his brother? Because the things Cain did were evil and the things his brother did had God’s approval." 1 John 3:12 (GW)
We can do a lot of good works for God, perform many beautiful sacrifices for Him, and never really know Him at all.
God fervently desires our love and our fellowship. His love for us is measureless. He wanted to know us intimately so He paid the ultimate price to redeem our souls for Himself.
It is such a great honor to serve our wonderful God who poured out all of Himself to redeem us for Himself in the Person of Jesus Christ.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, may we love You with all of our heart and soul and mind.
Help us to seek Thy face and draw us ever closer to You. Help us remember that it is a beautiful privilege to be able to worship You for who You are and for all You have done for us. Fill us with Thy Holy Spirit and teach us how to worship You in Spirit and in Truth, Thank You , Lord, we love You, In Jesus' name, amen.
God bless you all. You are always in my prayers.
Love in Christ ~Suzanne
Pause for a moment and listen to my worship album
"Paths of Love."
Spend some time with Jesus as you do. You can listen to
each of the tracks on this album in the audio player at the left.
"Paths of Love", released in August, is my first album of worship prayersongs & instrumentals.
I praise and thank our Lord Jesus Christ for this album that He blessed me with.
Paths features 18 tracks of spiritually intimate prayersongs and joyful instrumentals inspired by the Holy Spirit to encourage God's children to draw closer to His heart in worship.
Paths of Love Original Prayersongs for Worship & Meditation is available at:
- CDbaby
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/suzannedavisharden10
as either a digital download or an audio cd.
Throughout November & December CDbaby is offering a sale on shipping on all cds you purchase for a penny! Audio cds of peaceful worship music make great Christmas gifts and stocking-stuffers.
Paths of Love is also available on
- Amazon.com
- Wings Publications on Etsy
The Privilege of Worship © 2015 Suzanne Davis Harden All Rights Reserved.
Paths of Love Original Prayersongs For Worship & Meditation © 2015 Suzanne Davis Harden All Rights Reserved. © 2015 Peacefulprayersongs.com
Artwork Copyright © Suzanne Davis Harden All Rights Reserved. /Photo of Jesus and the Lamb via Pinterest
Scripture Quotations from TLB © Tyndale House All Rights Reserved. (KJB) King James Version Bible, New King James Version Bible (NKJV) Gods Word Translation (GW)