Worship Is A Way Of Life
Psalms 130:1-6 (MSG)
Help, God—I’ve hit rock bottom! Master, hear my cry for help!
Listen hard! Open your ears! Listen to my cries for mercy.
If you, God, kept records on wrongdoings, who would stand a chance? As it turns out, forgiveness is your habit, and that’s why you’re worshipped.
I pray to God—my life a prayer—and wait for what he’ll say and do.
My life’s on the line before God, my Lord, waiting and watching till morning, waiting and watching till morning.
When you hear or read the word 'worship' what comes to your mind? Music? A band? A church? There is a phrase that you may have heard floating around Gas Street - 'Worship is a way of life' or 'Worship is a lifestyle.' It implies I need to figure out how I worship with my whole self: my actions, my interactions, my emotions, my vulnerabilities, my insecurities, my life. The greatest worship song I can sing is when I am connecting with God, waiting on him and watching for him, and allowing his presence to extend to others.
God has really reinforced this phrase to me over the past couple of years. October 2019 - October 2020 was one of the darkest years of my life. My grandfather passed away on the first day of October in 2019. I was particularly close to him and the grieving process hit me extremely hard. To add to that, the pandemic began and well…we can all relate to that. In the middle of my grief and figuring out lockdown life, God taught me that when everything else is taken away - my emotional stability, norms, routines, the ways I serve at church, my relationships - he is the solid foundation that I can rely on. And it’s not just in those moments of feeling on rock-bottom but in the times where I’m surfing on top of the waves as well.
That is why worship becoming a lifestyle is so important to us as followers of Jesus. Our lives become worship: a life of prayer in constant contact with God. We move beyond having glimpses of God on Sundays to his presence filling us up and pouring out to others throughout the week.
Prayer — God, we shout to you in whatever situation we are in, good or bad. We pray that our worship to you becomes the way that we live day-to-day and that the fulfilment we receive pours into others’ lives. Help us to see the ways we can worship you today.