How to have a broader expression of worshiping God …

The Bible has a lot to say about worshiping God, which is a basic purpose for our very existence.

We were created to worship, glorify, and enjoy God!

Warren Wiersbe, in his book, “The Integrity Crisis,” writes the following about worship:

True biblical worship so satisfies our total personality that we don’t have to shop around for man-made substitutes. William Temple made this clear in his masterful definition of worship:

For worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of mind with His truth; the purifying of imagination by His beauty; the opening of the heart to His love; the surrender of will to His purpose — and all of this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable and therefore the chief remedy for that self-centeredness which is our original sin and the source of all actual sin.

Let me suggest five different ways you can approach expressions of worshiping God and, by having these different expressions, you’ll broaden and enrich your worship of Him:

Alone with God. On several occasions, a little later at night, I’ve found myself a little restless and felt compelled to turn on some “worship music,” thinking that would be a nice way to “settle myself” and finally get to sleep.

Oh no!

The Holy Spirit used those familiar tunes to stir my soul to sing praises to God, and I found myself lost in worshipful song for a few hours.

It was just me and God, a very personal time of worship, praise, and adoration, but those were times of great intimacy and profound worship.

If the only time you “worship” God is when you “go to church,” let me encourage you to include personal times of heartfelt worship, it will deepen your experience of worshiping God.

With your spouse. I’m not talking about taking your wife or husband to church, but the two of you, alone with God in worship of Him. One of the deepest experiences of intimacy a husband and wife can experience is “spiritual intimacy,” the sharing with one another your love and adoration of God. By worshiping God together, just the two of you, you’ll thicken your spiritual bonds and both enrich and strengthen your marriage relationship.

With your family. Let’s me be blunt, “family worship time” for most Christians sounds like some kind of garbled sentence uttered by an alien from another planet; the idea of families worshiping God together as something done in their homes is a foreign one to most professing Christians.

But teaching your children to worship God is the greatest responsibility you have as parents. If the only visual expressions of worship they see from you are during a church service on Sunday, that’s what they will think worship is. But when you incorporate into your home life regular times of worshiping God just with your family, you’re elevating worship to a different importance and demonstrating it for your children.

If you want your children to grow up to be faithful, obedient followers of Jesus Christ, make family worship time a real and consistent experience in your home.

With your church family. Christians most relate to the concept of “worship” when gathered with their church families, and this can be a wonderful experience. Many of us can relate to being “swept away” as together with our brothers and sisters in Christ we raise our voices in praise and adoration to God. it’s a tiny foretaste of worshiping God with the people we’ll be worshiping God with for all eternity, and it’s something not to be missed!

With your life. Psalm 103:22b states, “… Let all that I am praise the Lord.” The fullness of worship is to pour out the entirety of our lives in praise and adoration of God. How we live, every day, in every setting should be lived to the glory of God so that the living of our lives are, themselves, an act of worship to God.

Don’t settle for making “worship” something you experience only on Sunday mornings “at church.” Develop broader and deeper expressions of worshiping God, and you’ll find your relationship with Him to be much richer, fuller, and joyful.

Scotty