A Disciple Worships

Pause:

Before you start reading this devotional, take a moment to stop what you’re doing, slow down and focus on Jesus.

Pray and ask him to open your eyes to see as you read the Scriptures, and to open your ears to hear as you wait on the leading of the Spirit.

Read:

Psalm 103:1-8:
“My soul, bless the Lord,
and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
2 My soul, bless the Lord,
and do not forget all his benefits.

3 He forgives all your iniquity;
he heals all your diseases.
4 He redeems your life from the Pit;
he crowns you with faithful love and compassion.
5 He satisfies you with good things;
your youth is renewed like the eagle.

6 The Lord executes acts of righteousness
and justice for all the oppressed.
7 He revealed his ways to Moses,
his deeds to the people of Israel.
8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in faithful love.”

Going Deeper:

Everything in the Christian life is ultimately about worshipping God. The purpose of our existence is to know God, and in knowing Him to worship Him. We will spend eternity knowing God, seeing his goodness and beauty, and enjoying Him and praising Him. We share the gospel of Jesus with others so that they may know and worship God. All of God’s commands are ways to express our worship to Him.

With that said, what does worshipping look like? Worship is always first a response to God—we see our Father and His character and we respond. We may see His greatness through His word or creation, experience His love by His Holy Spirit, or notice His careful hand and gifts in the circumstances of our lives. Regardless, worship requires our attention! We can only worship God if we are paying attention to Him, and as we see Him for who He is.

Psalm 103 is an excellent example of worshipping God. David instructs his own soul to bless and praise God, and begins listing reasons that God is worthy of our praise. David reminds his soul of the incredible things that God has done on his behalf, and he reflects on God’s perfect character. David’s attention is directed toward God as he meditates on who God is, and how God has personally expressed His beauty and goodness to David.

One way that we worship, as David would have done through this Psalm, is to declare God’s amazing character verbally, especially in song. Did you know that we are commanded by God to sing (Colossians 3:16, Ephesians 5:19) and that God Himself sings (Zephaniah 3:17)? Musical worship is not just a ritual or some elementary understanding of worshipping God. Instead, it’s a beautiful invention of God for our good and His glory as we praise Him.

And yet, of course, our worship does not end there. We worship God not only by directing our attention to him and by praising him verbally, but we also worship God with our entire lives:

“Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship” (Romans 12:1).

Our daily choices, how we conduct our relationships, how we use our words, what we spend our money on, and how we use our physical bodies are all opportunities to worship God. If we are in Christ, we are no longer our own, but we have been bought with a price by Jesus’ blood (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). We have laid down our lives in order to know and follow Jesus—and yet we are living sacrifices, still going about our days. Each day brings opportunities to sacrifice our flesh, our sin, or our desires out of love for God and love for others.

When God empowers us to flee from a sexual temptation, we are declaring with our bodies that we love and worship God more than our own desires. When God empowers us to show mercy and kindness to someone who has hurt us, we are saying that we love God more than our own revenge or rights. And when God’s Spirit prompts us to set aside money for those who need it, we are declaring that God is more worthy than the material thing we would have wanted.

We worship God by enjoying Him and the good gifts He gives us. We worship God by verbally declaring his character and deeds. We also worship God by being living sacrifices, submitting more and more to Jesus instead of ourselves.

May God open your eyes to more and more opportunities to worship Him!

Pray:

Respond to God in prayer by speaking to Him about what stood out to you from this passage this morning.

Listen:

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you right now?

Apply:

What are you going to do in response to what God is saying to you from the text and by the Spirit?