Yes, I know that is not a word. But it ought to be. A verb here, not an adjective.

Follow the reasoning. True worship always, always carries our focus beyond ourselvesto the object of worship. True worship, not just that last slow song sung before the sermon on Sunday morning.

Psalm 96 kind of worship:

Webster actually does a pretty good job of describing it.

William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury one hundred years ago, described worship as “the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of mind with His truth; the purifying of imagination by His Beauty; the opening of the heart to His love; the surrender of will to His purpose – and all of this gathered up in adoration.”

Worship constantly recognizes the reality and priority of God in our lives. It is a lifestyle of looking beyond ourselves to the majesty and preeminence of God.

So here is my problem. How can we sing that slow song before the sermon, how can we claim to worship, how can we bow in awe before the overwhelming presence of God– and then walk out of church and ignore the pain of those He loves?

Worship doesn’t work that way. His priorities become ours. The opening of the heart to His love; the surrender of will to His purpose.

As in Isaiah 1:17: “Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.”

Or James 1:27: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

Or Isaiah 58:​​​

True worship unselfishes us.

How will you worship today?