WE WORSHIP WHAT WE VALUE

I am writing for Five Minute Friday and this week's prompt word is WORSHIP.

What is worship?

It's worth - ship.

It's recognising and declaring the beauty of something.

It's declaring the worth of something to us.   

It's not deciding the worth of something - it's declaring the worth of something to us.    

It's giving glory, honour, importance to something.   

How do we do that?

With our words, yes - said or spoken.   

Words are important.   They cement what we believe, for better or worse.    

Our words declare our worship to ourselves, and to others.   

But worship is so much more than words.

Words sound great but they are not enough and are often shallow when tested by the reality of our trials.    What we say and sing between Sundays is what we really believe.   

We declare our worship just as loudly through our repeated actions and habits, through our choices, through our daily rituals, mostly behind closed doors.

We worship what we value.

We worship what we prioritise.

We worship what we focus on.

We worship what we meditate on.

We worship what we fear losing.

We worship what we're prepared to make sacrifices for.

We worship what we put on a pedestal.

We worship what we trust in.

We worship what drives us.  

I remember when I did art in middle high school, our teacher would get us to use a viewfinder to focus in on one aspect of a picture and make that small part the big picture.   It was a technique designed to help you think about detail, and it did that.     This is a picture I drew back in about 1982.  I loved drawing horses but she had me draw just its teeth.    

This technique showed us how distorted your perspective can become when you focus on a small part of a big picture.  It shows how easily you can drown in the detail.   

I believe we do the same when we choose to worship (value, prioritise, focus on, fear, trust in, sacrifice for, idolise, be driven by) ONE aspect of our lives instead of worshipping the much, much bigger God Who is over all and Who sees all.  

He is able to do so much more than we can ask, think or imagine, because He's already been doing it, for centuries, before we showed up to help or advise Him, before we had eyes to see or hands to help.    

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,    to HIM be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.   Ephesians 3:20-21

When faced with a large problem, we need to understand that we see a distorted view of it.    

We are in it - He was before it and He is above it and beyond it and over it.  

Worshipping Him allows us to see the size of the problem compared to Him (small).

Worshipping Him allows us to see the power of the problem compared to Him (small).

Worshipping Him allows us to see the place and purpose of the problem in His higher purpose and plan.  

When we choose to worship Him in the middle of it, with our words AND with our priorities, we return to peace and we get clarity.  

The 'big' things get put in their proper place, we understand what we need to do and what we need to let Him handle. 

We need just small faith in a big God, and worshipping Him above all else allows us to see the problems from HIS perspective, not ours.    

Our worship makes room for Him to work, partly because it gets us out of the way, it allows us to make good choices, AND because our faith and our prayers change outcomes.   

The Lord rewards faith.  He blesses people, but He rewards faith.   

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.  Heb 11:6

Worship declares our faith, and our deeds will consistently declare it louder than our words.   

We don't need to know everything.   We just need to keep getting to know the One who does.   

ONE thing I have desired of the Lord,

That will I seek:

That I may dwell in the house of the Lord

All the days of my life,

To behold the beauty of the Lord,

And to inquire in His temple.

For in the time of trouble

He shall hide me in His pavilion;

In the secret place of His tabernacle

He shall hide me;

He shall set me high upon a rock.  Ps 27:4-5

The same passage, in the Amplified Bible: 

One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek, inquire for, and [insistently] require: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord [in His presence] all the days of my life, to behold and gaze upon the beauty [the sweet attractiveness and the delightful loveliness] of the Lord and to meditate, consider, and inquire in His temple.

This is a song I often wake up with and if I do, it's His reminder that something needs to go, something that is distracting me and distorting my view, and that I need to consciously make room for Him and His truth. 

And I will make room for You

To do whatever You want to

To do whatever You want to

I will make room for You

To do whatever You want to

To do whatever You want to

Here is where I lay it down

Every burden, every crown

This is my surrender

This is my surrender