Too often, we can get the idea of worship mixed up. Worship today is frequently used as an adjective referring to spaces, orders of service, music and songs. Neither song nor music can worship God. They both do what the human who writes or sings the song intends.
Also, a song with uplifting God-honoring lyrics may not ascend from a worshipper’s heart. A human is the only object in the world that can offer worship. All other creatures live in perfect submission to the will of God, yet we have been given the glorious option to bless the Lord.
The first time we see the word in the Bible is in the story of Abraham offering his son, Isaac. Abraham hears God command that he sacrifice his most-loved object. Abraham wastes no time in obeying.
He wakes early, readies the transportation and leads the servants toward God’s specified place. Abraham even takes the time to gather the wood before going to keep any chance of failure from being possible. When the Lord spoke, Abraham listened and obeyed.
As they approach the mountain, Abraham tells the servants to wait while he and Isaac go to worship. Abraham sensed that God would never let him go through with such a horrific thing, but he also wanted the Lord to know that he fully trusted Him. “The boy and I will go to worship, and then we will return,” he said. We. We will return. The faith of this man. The trust of his son.
“Dad, I see the wood and fire, but where is the sacrifice?” Isaac asked.
Abraham responded, “The Lord will provide a lamb.”
And did He ever?! We learn later all that the lamb embodies and entails. The sacrifice for sins, atonement, cleansing and ceremony were all to be discovered.
John the Baptist pointed out Jesus as the lamb who comes to take away the sins of the world. In Revelation, Jesus is displayed before the throne of Almighty God as a slaughtered lamb. God has provided a lamb, and He has saved all of us who believe.
As Abraham set the sacrifice up and tied Isaac down, a ram was found stuck nearby. God would never want us to harm another human. However, we must never allow humans to have a place in our souls that is reserved for Jesus. We must be ready to live open-handed with everything in this life.
We will be tested in any area we don’t want to offer to God. We are commanded in Deuteronomy to love our Lord with all of our heart, mind and might. At their core, the three of those words mean every part of you.
Your thoughts, feelings, and will are part of who you are and must be submitted. Your personality, appetites and individualism must be submitted. We must lay all our reputation, efforts, energy, dreams and possessions on the altar before God.
It’s not that He doesn’t want you to enjoy anything. He knows that the only joy that will last forever is Himself. So, bless the Lord! Join the angels declaring that He is holy! Give your life daily as a living sacrifice and put Him first over all things.
Gratitude, generosity and obedience will give you a new life you never dreamed of. Put Him first in all things, and then you never have to worry that things might have you. Cling only to Christ. He’s the only thing that will last forever.
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