Worship God Anyway

Worshipping God comes natural for believers. It’s what we do in church. It’s what we do in the beauty of a majestic landscape or the spectacular colors of fall. It’s easy to worship God when we see His handiwork. It’s easy when we experience His favorable intervention in our lives. But what about when we can’t see His handiwork or we don’t understand His seeming lack of compassion? What about when an unexpected death occurs or when your dream has been shattered? Do you worship God then? Is there praise in your heart?

Train Your Brain

Not only is worship a recognition of God’s sovereignty, it is an act of obedience. Jesus said in Luke 4:8, “You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.” There are no stipulations as to when we are to worship. It says to worship, straight up. Our environment, finances, health, and circumstances should not dictate if or when we worship.

One of the positive aspects of worship is that it keeps us focused on God and not on ourselves. When we set our minds on ourselves and the things of this earth, we inevitably find disappointment and failure. But when we set our minds on God, our perspective is kept where it needs to be: God first, everything else second. “For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace . . .” (Rom. 8:6).

Glorifying His name is our primary reason for our existence. Therefore, we are to worship God at all times—through the good, the bad, the hard, the sad, the lovely, and the ugly. Nothing is exempt.

Another aspect of worship is that it is not reliant on feelings; it is an act of faith and obedience. We don’t feel like worshiping God when we receive heart-stopping news that a loved one was drowned in a flashflood. Feelings are a manifestation of emotion, and worship does not have to coincide with emotion. In fact, worship out of feelings is shallow. It doesn’t have to feel right—it is right.

Don’t Forget to Remember

Worshipping God through the difficult moments in life requires us to remember. What do I mean? By remembering what His Word says, or recalling past experiences when we could see His hand, we can cling to these things to help us through our present difficulties. The word remember is used over 150 times in the Bible. The New International Encyclopedia of Bible Words refers to the Old Testament’s call to remember as more than an invitation to think about the past. It is a call to identify oneself with the past and to let the present be shaped by it.

Among the things I like to remember are His promises, His attributes, how much He loves and cares for me, how much He thinks about me, and how He knows my heart.

Let’s consider Psalm 73. Asaph, King David’s appointed minister of music, develops an envious heart as he looks at the wealthy wicked and not on God. He compares his woes to the easy increase in the wicked man’s wealth. Not until Asaph comes into the sanctuary and sees the truth does he recapture his faith in God and realize the foolishness of his ways. Asaph remembers God upon returning to the sanctuary. Could there be a lesson there for us? “It was troublesome in my sight until I came into the sanctuary of God; then I perceived their end. But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all Thy works” (Ps. 73:16-17, 28).

The New Testament’s call to remember reinforces the Old Testament’s call through the remembrance of the Lord’s Supper. “Do this in remembrance of me” (1 Cor. 11:24). The Lord’s Supper invites us to remember Jesus’ crucifixion and identify ourselves with Him, reminding us of why we are to worship.

How Can I Worship Thee? Let Me Count the Ways

Worship is not confined to a church sanctuary—it can happen in an office, car, home, or at the kitchen sink. It can occur in unlikely places. I have worshipped God in a bubbly bathtub, under a sterile bio-safety cabinet, and in a roomful of people.

The impulse to worship must not come from our surroundings—it must come from a faithful heart. This is especially true when our surroundings are composed of hurt, pain, sorrow, fear, and uncertainty.

Church services, music, offerings, Bible reading, prayer, and praise are only some of the ways to evoke a spirit of worship—we should never put limits on it. Wherever the place, whenever the moment, whatever the situation, let us worship God.