"Worship is the continuous outpouring of all that I am in light of my chosen god."
Worship. It's a funny thing because it has different meanings to different people. But we don't need another blog post convincing us that worship is more than the songs we sing. We need the reminder, but it's a common topic for the bloggers. Let's just assume we understand that point already.
Worship is an outpouring of my life. It is where I place my time, money, effort, thoughts, words, deeds, and emotions. Every time I make a choice during my day, I am prioritizing something over something else (for example, I often prioritize sleep over homework). Even in these little choices, we see where our loyalties truly lie.
I make little idols for myself daily. Not out of things that are bad, but out of good things. This is the way that sin gets ahold of us--it's been Satan's approach from the beginning. One author I read once said that Satan often tempts us with getting good things by the wrong means. Evil, which is nothing more than a twisting of goodness, exemplifies this point. Look at sex as a great example: God created sex as a beautiful and lovely thing. But sin taints and twists and defaces this gift from God and makes it a broken and dirty idol that we worship.
Idols don't even have to be as drastic as something like a poor view of sex--it can even be found in materialism. This isn't a knock on the American church--materialism is a problem even in places where the poverty level is extraordinarily high. It's a sin problem, after all (though it is true that this particular sin may hit home with the West more than the Eastern church). There have been times where I've walked in a store for one thing and, before I know what's happened, I'm at the counter with more than I ever intended to buy. Or I've bought things I really didn't have the money for.
Yet, to quote Mark Driscoll, "the problem is not in the mall, but in us" ("Who Do You Think You Are?") It comes down to a heart problem. Our hearts are desperately wicked, filthy, and sin-soaked. They naturally desire to worship ourselves, others, and anything besides the One who deserves our worship just by His very existence.
To worship anything other than the Triune Deity is utter treason.
It is the highest form of idolatry.
It is the highest form of idolatry.
I challenge myself, and you too, my dear friend, to make daily choices to combat heart idols. Borrowing from ideas found in Kyle Idleman's "Gods at War," anything that we find our identity in other than Christ is immediately an idol.
And how dare we have any gods before Him.
