What is the most important way to spend your time as a Christian? Is it serving others? Is it reading God’s word or making disciples? Sinclair Ferguson, a pastor and theologian from Aberdeen, Scotland believes “The single most important activity of your life is to worship God. You were made for this – to offer your whole life, in all its parts, as a hymn of praise to the Lord.”
I think that is a beautiful picture of the Christian life. Our lives are to be a hymn of praise to God. No matter what we are doing we are to do so to bring honor and glory to God. 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (English Standard Version) Seeking God’s glory is a form of worship because we are seeking to bring honor to God and to point others to the creator of the universe.
The word “worship” comes from the old English word worshippe. It means to place worth in something, to count a person or thing as honorable and worthy of praise. You can worship God in any area of your life as long as you are seeking to live a holy life and bring glory to God. You can worship God when you do chores, when you play sports, and when you serve others.
We often think about worship in terms of singing, but true worship goes deeper than the words we sing. Worship is an attitude of the heart. If your motive is to be thankful to God and be focused on him, then your entire life can be one of worship. This is why worship is the most important activity in life. All of life can fit under the umbrella of true worship. In Romans 12:1 Paul wrote to believers in Rome, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” The apostle Paul wanted Christians to see their bodies as a living sacrifice, which was constantly committed to God.
This worshipful mentality can have a dramatic impact on how we live the Christian life. We can learn to be content in even the most menial tasks because we can see how it fits into God’s greater plan to bring worship to him. We can learn to think like the Psalmist who was constantly thinking in terms of worship. Psalm 96:1-2 says, “Oh sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth! Sing to the LORD, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day.”
The Psalmist wanted to bring new worship to God. His day was full of finding reasons to thank God and praise his name. The Psalmist filled his day with worship. There was no sense of being “bored” or “growing weary” with the monotony of life. The Psalmist saw opportunities to worship God all around him. Psalm 96:3-4 says, “Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples! For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised;” A life of worship is full of declaring the goodness of God. It is being thankful and bring grateful to God for his abundant blessing.
James 1:17 says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.” That means that we can worship God whenever anything good happens in life. We can give credit to him for blessing us in even the smallest ways. This attitude should grow down deep into our souls so that we will be ready to live a life that is full of worship of our glorious God.
