Romans 12: 1-8; Colossians 3: 23-24
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. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
23 And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for[a] you serve the Lord Christ.
The word worship strikes up a certain idea in our mind – we have a conditioned perspective of what worship looks like, or feels like, based on our upbringing, environment, or even experience from our Christian community. The simplest definition of worship is an art of reverence to God.
Worship invokes the pictorial imagination of uplifted hands, bowed-down heads, or even bent-down knees, with songs of praise, words of adoration, and shouts of acclamation to His Holy Name. Worship stirs up our spirits, charges the atmosphere, and invokes the manifest presence of God!
However, God is calling us to a deeper sense of worship – a higher level that transcends the lifting up of hands, or singing of songs. It’s a worship in which we dedicate each of our senses a living sacrifice to God – this connotes the fact that whatever we’ll see, hear, smell, etc., will be only the things that are pleasing to God. This is a ‘living’ worship.
It is a worship in which we sanctify our members (our hands, legs, and entire body) as an art of reverence unto God; meaning that the things we do, or places we go, are in accordance with God’s Word to bring glory to His Name – this is a ‘living’ worship.
It is a worship in which we offer our everyday ordinary life as a form of service to the Most High God. That is, our eating, drinking, working, walking, dressing, talking, driving, and whatever constitutes our everyday life (activities and tasks), – all done as unto God, and not unto men; such that the entire lifestyle becomes an art of service to God.
Folks, it is time for us to take our worship of God to a higher level; to honor His Majesty, The One who sits upon the throne, and to exalt His Holy Name – the name above all names.
Let everything about us, within us, upon us (including our gifts, abilities, skills, talents, etc.,) be offered as a living sacrifice to the Almighty God.