The Fuel of Worship
As followers of Christ, our purpose is to glorify God. In all we say, all we do, and all we think, the aim of our lives must be to testify to others and to God how glorious and worthy he truly is. To say it another way, the entirety of our lives is for the purpose of worship. By definition, worship means to ascribe worth, to recognize and attribute worth to someone or something. Therefore, we must know about and understand God before we can ascribe worth to him. You cannot worship what you do not know.
As Paul reflects on God’s mercy to both Jews and Gentiles in the midst of their disobedience, he erupts with thoughts of praise saying: “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen” (Romans 1:33-36). One thing can be said for certain, Paul knew God. And as the Holy Spirit guided him in writing about God’s wisdom, a spark was lit. The collision of his regenerated mind with spiritual knowledge ignited worship. And as this flame encountered more fuel, in the form of additional knowledge of God, it erupted in a blaze of praise.
Two truths can be learned from Paul’s example of praise. First, to the regenerated person, knowledge of God is the spark of worship. In reflecting on our understanding of God as all wise, all just, all sufficient in himself, all powerful, and having all dominion and possession, something happens. Our hearts, like Paul’s, erupt in praise. When truths of God are put before a Christian, worship proceeds.
Second, we learn that knowledge of God and his works is the fuel and substance of our worship. In all the facets in which worship expresses itself, it is a declaration of God’s character and his deeds. When we worship him through song, the words we sing must declare who he is and what he has done. When we worship God through our actions, the things we do must reflect who God is and what he done. So knowledge is central in both initiating and sustaining worship.
How do these truths affect our lives? What needs to change or increase as a result of them? Well, if it is true that knowledge of God is the catalyst and the substance of worship, then we must passionately pursue a more full understanding of him. For if we worship from a misunderstanding of who God is and what he has done then our worship is in vain. But when we grow in a proper understanding of God, our worship increases in breadth. Brothers and Sisters, I exhort to you be earnest in prayer that God would open your eyes to see and comprehend the riches of Christ. Be diligent in studying the word of God so that, as you read, the Spirit would teach you who it is that saved you and the glorious way in which he did it. Be fervent in listening. God uses the teachers in your life to speak his word so that you would be edified, encouraged, and emboldened to live courageously for Christ.
And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.”
(Colossians 1:9-12)
Brothers and sisters, let us continue to grow together in our knowledge of God and may he ignite in us an explosion of worship!
