As we begin to push the boundaries of our understanding of worship we need to consider study of God’s word as an essential piece of the puzzle. Throughout the Scriptures devotion to the word of God is seen as a primary act of worship. This means far more than just listening to a sermon on Sunday morning or reading short passages in the Bible before we head out for work. True devotion to the word of God is making it a top priority in our lives. This begins with our attitude toward the Bible, God’s word. Is it just a book of nice stories and helpful advice or is it the living word of God? The true starting place of worship is our heart attitude toward God’s word.
God stressed the importance of His word to Joshua as he prepared to lead the people of Israel into the Promised Land. “Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.” Joshua 1:8 (NIV)
Many years later King David expressed the kind of attitude God desires from those who would genuinely worship Him.
How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word.
I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands.
I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
Praise be to you, O LORD; teach me your decrees.
With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth.
I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches.
I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways.
I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word.
Psalm 119:9-16
The centrality of the word of God is carried throughout the New Testament as well. When Paul was writing to his apprentice Timothy he stressed the importance of God’s word. “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:14-17 (NIV)
Later James, the brother of Jesus, echoed Paul’s words with even greater force. “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it--he will be blessed in what he does.” James 1:22-25 (NIV)
Let me draw some practical application from these passages. One of the primary ways that we worship God is by taking the Bible seriously. This lays the foundation for everything else that we do. Unless we are regularly interacting with God’s Word we cannot know what it means to please God. So how do we demonstrate this primary act of worship?
First we must be regularly exposed to God’s Word. In Deuteronomy 6 God gave these instructions to Israel. They are still applicable today. “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” Deuteronomy 6:4-9 (NIV) God was stressing to Israel and to us the importance of keeping His word before us. We cannot do this by a half hour sermon on Sunday morning. God’s desire is that we would expose ourselves daily to his word. The more that we are exposed to the Word the greater impact it will have on our lives.
This leads us to the second step, which is to digest God’s Word. We have all had the experience of listening to a lecture or a conversation only to awaken to the reality that we haven’t heard anything that was being said. The words had been flowing over and around us but we had failed to absorb them. Too often this is our experience with God’s word. We quickly read a passage of scripture, close our Bible and forget what we have read. If we truly want to worship God we need to make the effort to listen and understand what God is saying to us. This takes real effort on our part. We cannot settle for a quick read. Instead we need to engage the Word. Rarely does this happen automatically. We need to give God’s word the time and space to sink into our souls. Paul made a point of this in Philippians 4:8. “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.” The word Paul uses to “think about” is the word for ruminate or chew on. It is like a cow chewing its cud. A cow brings its cud back again and again until it is fully digested. Paul is telling us that we should process God’s word in the same way.
The third step in this act of worship is to put God’s Word into practice. Information that is not translated into action is useless, no matter how important or lofty it might be. Jesus made it clear that our primary act of worship is to obey what He has commanded us to do. Like James says, it is not enough to be hearers of the word. We must be doers of the word. Each time that we chose to actively live out what we have learned in God’s Word we are committing an act of worship. When I choose to love someone who is hard to love, that is an act of worship to God. When I chose to seek God’s glory instead of my own, that is an act of worship. When I respond to some offense with grace and kindness I am expressing worship to God.
Whatever form our worship takes it must be shaped and guided by God's Word.
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