True and Proper Worship

‘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 your true and proper worship.’ Rom 12:1 NIV

‘I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.’ Rom 12:1 NKJV

 While meditating on this verse I began to break it down and look at what it is that Paul is exhorting and why. I remember reading this verse as a young Christian and honestly feeling that it was a pretty stiff command.

To offer my body as a living sacrifice meant that I was now yielding control of my life. I remember being baffled at how this was a ‘reasonable’ request. (I know, I know. Tut-tut!)

Thankfully God is patient and kind to us when we don’t understand and is always ready to reveal Himself and His word through the power of the Holy Spirit.

As I sat in the prayer meeting recently God brought this verse to my heart again and I wrote down those thoughts as they came. I have tried in some way to tie them together into a cohesive piece of writing; however they refuse to be catalogued according to my need for neatness. Therefore I will write them as they came in that meeting place where God spoke them to me. You will excuse the untidiness I know and not hold it against me.

 - Worship is not the singing of songs and clapping of hands, it is the attitude of a heart that has known and understood the mercy of God. It will not be known only in the singing of God’s people but in the active laying down of their lives.

 - One cannot worship properly unless one has a true understanding of the mercy of God. One will always treat as common the sacrifice of Christ unless there is revelation of the need of mercy that sent him to the cross. The gospel is an awfully personal thing and demands a very personal response. True worship that pleases God begins in knowing and understanding His mercy towards us.

- Worship is so much more than singing for 20mins at church on a Sunday. That is such a limited understanding of worship. Giving glory to God every day and in every way in our lives is worship. Why would we worship God with our whole lives? Because of His mercy. Worship is the response to mercy.

- Worship is only a 'reasonable' response to a God that has given His life, His glory, His power and position for a rotten, selfish, separated and sin-soaked people. When we consider God's mercy, our lives are only a reasonable response. It is not a harsh expectation that we would willingly yield our lives to Him whose mercy is so great.

- We respond in worship when we surrender our plans for His, our thoughts for His, our words for His and our deeds for His! That is only reasonable when we consider His mercy toward us.

 - To ask him to worship God who has no understanding of His mercy, is to ask him to pretend, for he cannot know how without knowing why. It will be at best incomplete and at worst an act.
- Worship is THE response to mercy. It deals with the 'how' we respond to God while Mercy deals with the question ‘why’.

- Think of His love, sacrifice, death, forgiveness and tell me your heart doesn't know that its reasonable response is worship.
But ask me to hand over my whole life without telling me why and my heart resists all the more.  Understanding His mercy toward me is the beginning of my life of worship.

- In the Old Testament the people went to the Tabernacle and then to the Temple to show their worship to God. They went to where He was. They knew that the presence of God was in that place and they worshipped Him there. Why?

Because His Presence was and still is the greatest mercy. That a holy and righteous God would be found amongst such a rebellious people is mercy itself.

- And more than that, Mercy is not a thing but a Person- Jesus Christ Himself is Mercy. That is why we cannot come to the Father but by Him. He is the Mercy that allows us to draw near. It is not only that God has forgiven us but that he chooses to abide with us. That exites my heart and makes me want to sing!!

- We no longer have to travel to a tabernacle to worship God, John’s gospel tells us ‘And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us’. Jesus has literally ‘tabernacled’ among us. Worship is our whole life, our whole self all of the time because we have His presence in us all the time. We are surrounded and covered by His mercy all of the time. Praise the Lord!

That is why worship is not for Sunday mornings/prayer meetings alone, nor even limited to songs but instead for every day, in every way because of His abiding presence. He will never leave us!

 - My favourite Psalm is number 27. David knew the mercy of God and worship flowed from his heart. He wrote these words that always touch my heart;

‘One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple.’

- I believe David knew that to be allowed to ‘dwell in the house of the Lord’ was possible only as he was granted entry according to God’s mercy for he also penned these words in Psalm 51: ‘Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation; Then my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips That my mouth may declare Your praise.’
Tell me these are not the words of a man who understood God’s mercy. David’s response to God’s mercy was praise and worship. How much more will we worship, on this side of Calvary, if we understand that God has redeemed, cleansed, filled and sealed us all according to His mercy?
‘Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.’ 1Peter 2:10

- How I love to join with the countless angels and living creatures around the throne saying “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain To receive power and riches and wisdom, And strength and honor and glory and blessing!”… “Blessing and honor and glory and power Be to Him who sits on the throne, And to the Lamb, forever and ever!”