what about worship?

“Surely that which occupies the total time and energies of heaven must be a fitting pattern for earth.” —Paul E. Billheimer

If salvation and sanctification are both works of grace, all dependent on God’s sovereign purpose, then what’s left for us to do?

I like to joke with my Arminian friends that free will is an illusion, but of course we do choose and act. God’s grace enables us to do so, but we still must choose and act, or trust and obey as the hymn writer puts it.

Obeying Him as we respond to Him in gratefulness and reverence is a lot different than doing it to earn his love, which is presumptuous at best. He loved us when we were unlovable, and called us when we were deaf, and made us alive when we were dead.

There is only one appropriate response, and that is to worship Him.

recognizing His worth

Worship, literally recognizing his “worth-ship,” is not something we do on Sundays. It is what both the Old and New Testament require of us all the time: loving the Lord our God with all our heart and mind and soul (Mark 12;30, Deuteronomy 6:5).

And worship is something we are doing all the time. Something is always more important to us than anything else. Whatever that is, we are worshipping it, regardless of the day or activity.

He wants us to worship Him and His work in saving and sanctifying us makes obeying Him, serving Him and adoring Him seem “reasonable,” as Paul puts it in his letter to the Romans (12:1). But it doesn’t make it easy.

So we develop new habits that point us in the right direction. These habits of the heart start with submission and end with sacrifice. We surrender our will and everything else follows, as we, like Abraham, look forward to a city that has foundations whose builder and maker is God (Hebrews 11:10).

experiencing His presence

Praying. Studying and memorizing Scripture. Fasting. Singing. Giving. Christians are commanded to do many things that keep their hearts and minds focused on the Father, habits that both reinforce and reflect hearts that turn toward Him as the flower turns toward the sun.

These are all means of grace.

I like that term. It is so unBaptist. It makes me feel like a Lutheran or something. And while I don’t believe the bread and wine of Communion become the actual body and blood or our Lord, I do believe any spiritual discipline thoughtfully engaged enables me to remember, realize, revisit or reenact the work of God and experience His presence. And to worship Him.

Sometimes, however, I get confused and think these things are what God wants when what He really wants is my heart. I love what C.S. Lewis said about prayer, that it doesn’t change God, but that it changes us.

This change is not simply an emotional response to the goodness of God, although that becomes part of it. It is rather a conscious, intentional choosing of that which honors Him, regardless of what I feel or want.

I’ve come to understand that God’s purpose in my life is not to make me happy but to make me holy. Given all the rough edges He has to work with, this is sometimes an uncomfortable process.

How can I have joy when life is filled with temptation and trial (James 1:2-6)? Because God is at work, causing me to depend more on Him and become more like Him.

This brings Him glory and gives me yet another reason to worship Him.