by Sharon Ingram
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God - this is true worship.
To worship is to honour, reverence and show adoration to a divine being. As Christians, the object of our worship is God. We see precedence for worship in the Old Testament. The Israelites’ worship tended to take the form of building altars and offering sacrifices to God. They had set places they had to carry out their rituals of worship.
It is important to understand however, that while our worship today does include rituals (prayer, singing, fasting etc); it is not limited to these. It is also not something that has to be done in a particular place. In John 4 Jesus told the Samaritan woman that the time was coming when the Father would not be worshipped on the mountain or in Jerusalem, and that He would be worshipped in Spirit and in truth. We can see that the location of the worship is not the important thing, but rather the attitude of the worshipper. God is looking for heart-felt worship, not words or practices done merely out of duty.
In Romans 12:1 Paul tells us that true worship is to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. We are to present our whole self to Him to be used as He desires. This means that worship can, and should be, part of our daily lifestyle. We can express our worship through the words we speak, the actions we do throughout the day, and the decisions we make, if these are consistent with the lifestyle God has called us to live. When we submit our will to God’s will and are obedient to Him, even when it means we have to make a personal sacrifice - this is worship! Let us all consider what act of worship we can do today to express our love, gratitude and devotion to God.
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