by Bob Morris

When considering what worship is many often think of singing songs, reading the Word, and praying during the Sunday morning service that we have weekly. It is easy to leave it in that setting. But I challenge you to consider worship more broadly and deeply for a moment.

The word “worship” is translated from words in the Bible that are also translated as serve, fear, bow before, and give homage to. Worship is not limited to the setting of Sunday worship nor to the scope of merely singing songs and praying. In a full sense worship is seeing God in his holiness and power and then responding with a complete sense of awe, full awareness of our weakness, and praise of God.

A few examples of worship from the Bible are:

 *2 Samuel–David danced before the Lord in celebrating the return of the ark to Jerusalem.

 *I Chronicles 16–David led the Israelites in worship through giving thanks, singing, remembering His good deeds, speaking praise, and bringing an offering.

  *Isaiah 6 –Isaiah was awestruck as he encountered God and responded by declaring his sinfulness.

  *Psalm 100 calls for shouting for joy, singing joyful songs to the Lord

  *Matthew 2–The Wise Men sought out the Christ child and gave him gifts.

  *Romans 12 calls for dedicating whole self to God as an act of spiritual worship.

Worship can be done in varied settings and with varied methods. In a sense the whole of our lives can be seen as an act of worship if we consciously work to that end.

I would like to share a special time of worship in my life: I was 12 or 13 years old when one winter evening I was finishing my evening farm chores and heading back to the house from the barn. It was already dark, and it was cold and snowing heavily. Our bright yard light illuminated the cloud of large, soft flakes swirling around. It was surreal. I had been thinking about God and my relationship with him. I wasn’t yet a believer in Christ, but I did believe in God in general.

In that setting suddenly I sensed the strong presence of God. He was in the snow and the light that surrounded me, and He was working on my heart within me. I knelt down on my knees in the snow and, like Isaiah, I was simply in wonder of Him and knew that I must worship Him. I was very aware of my weaknesses. I told him I wanted to know Him more and wanted to follow him.

I did not accept Jesus as my savior until I was 17, but this early encounter with God was very important in my faith journey. I was thankful and humbled that God showed Himself to me as He did.

I pray we all experience worship that transforms us into better followers of Him.