This particular song was written in the first person to begin with. It was my personal declaration to almighty God, that I am here, meaning at that time in my personal place of prayer, to worship Him. But it also raised a thought within me that had been nagging me for some time. Why am I, why are we Christians, here at all. I know that after we have accepted Jesus as our Lord and savior, we are told to share our faith so others can know the one who saved us, but that did not fully satisfy me. Can’t God use dreams, angels, a donkey (see Numbers 22 in the Old Testament) and even stones (see Luke 19:40) to speak about what God wants to reveal.
The answer to why I was taking time out to pray to God in private and why I was still here on earth was the same for me. I am here in my prayer space, I am here on earth, to worship the Lord, my creator, creator of everything seen and unseen. And everything I do should be an act of worship. It is also a step of faith to worship Him. We don't see God like we see things with our physical eyes. We can see what He has created and we can see the miracle of life in His creation but it takes faith to accept that a God we cannot see it the source of all things.
We go to church to worship God, or do we? Some of us (at different times in our lives) go to church because we feel we should, some of us go for the fellowship, some have been forced to go and some are truly seeking out God and wanting to know Him and learn more about Him through the worship and sermons. As good as gathering in church is, and as necessary as it is to come together as one body and worship God, our act of service does not end with church. We are here to worship the King. I mean, we are here in the world to worship the King. Not just in church but in whatever we do. When we take care of our children even when they appear ungrateful and uncaring, our care of them is an act of worship. When we go to work and give our best even when it seems to be unappreciated, or when we clean, when we cook, when we help and encourage others, these are all acts of worship, as much as when we sing or teach or evangelize. we show the heart of God the Father in these acts of worship that we perform.
I have a T-shirt that says ‘Do small things with great love’. That kind of sums it up for me. We don’t have to do what we think of as great things. Whatever we do with kindness and love becomes a great thing: an act of worship. We want whatever we do to be positive, to enrich lives, to make our corner of the world better. We don’t want to do things simply to be recognized. We don’t want the praise or acceptance of others to be the reason we do anything. However, people do take note of what we do and it influences what they think of us, but not only of us, also of the one we say we serve.
One last thought. Worship is tightly bound with love. I wonder about those biblical stories of mandating worship, like what happened with the three Hebrew young men in the book of Daniel. King Nebuchadnessar ordered that everyone fall down in worship whenever they heard the sound of music being played. The three young men refused. They said they would only worship God. I just wonder if anyone was actually worshiping the golden statue. They were paying tribute out of obedience and fear. But true worship is an expression of love, reverence and adoration. You do not adore out of terror, dread or fear, unless it is a holy fear which is a whole different animal. True worship takes the focus off of self and onto the one being adored. In some instances the words of our language have been changed so they no longer convey the original meaning. Worship is voluntary, it is unforced, it is an act of reverence and adoration. It is done because you want to, sometimes because you just can’t help yourself.
