Worship Is Our HonourSample

We Were Made For This

To understand the essence of what it means to worship God we need to take a close look at the first couple of chapters of the Bible. We sometimes get distracted by other questions, but the main thing that the writer of the first chapters of Genesis wanted to talk about was what our connection with God should be like. Genesis 1 and 2 make it clear that unlike everything else in creation, you and I were made for a relationship with God. Humanity is both the pinnacle of all that was created, and the purpose for the rest of creation - everything else that was made, was made for us.

Genesis 1 tells us that we’ve been given the dignity of being made in God’s image, designed for fellowship with our Maker, and unlike every other creature we have a divine purpose and responsibilities. It’s also worth noticing in Chapter 2 that the writer works really hard to make it clear that Adam and Eve are of the same essence. They’re put together to support one another in their job of continuing to co-create with God Himself - shaping and filling this world that we live in.

You see the original readers of Genesis couldn’t have imagined a more wonderful paradise than the picture of a garden that watered the whole earth. And what we’re meant to realise is that everything that is good in this world is a free gift from our Father-God. It’s a picture of Creation that’s all about how He supplies our every need, and satisfies our purest longings. We are designed to enjoy fellowship with God, to experience the safety of a loving and inclusive community, and to find purpose and fulfilment in developing and looking after the material world.

But there is one curious inclusion in the Garden of Eden. A tree that is out of bounds, the ‘Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil’. Having been given everything they need, God places one limit on Adam and Eve’s experience of all the good things he’s given them. This is the one test of their attitude to the One who has given them everything else they could possibly want. Will they trust their Heavenly Father? Will they accept His wisdom about what’s best for them?

The Heart of Worship

Of course we know what happened when they were seduced by the first ever FOMO. Innocence was destroyed; shame was introduced; the first blame game began; and every aspect of life became tainted by envy and frustration. Instead of living under God’s leadership in healthy communities that steward the rest of creation wisely, now we live with the reality of a fallen world every day. So many relationships are fractured and disappointing; we use this material world to try and build self-sufficient identities without any connection to God; we abuse and misuse our fellow humans and the creation that we depend on.

The lie that Adam and Eve fell for is still powerful today. In fact everything humanity suffers flows out of this one false idea - that ‘God can’t be trusted to know what’s best for me’. And this is where worship comes into it, because worship rests on a singular truth - that God can be trusted with my whole life. That’s the heart of worship. You and I are hand-crafted by God to draw our identity and our meaning from fellowship with Him; we are designed to enjoy the goodness of everything He has got for us when we learn to be satisfied and fulfilled in Him.

We were made for worship, to live connected to the God who made us, trusting His plan and His timing. Of course that’s the journey of faith, recovering the heart of a life of worship, learning to trust God in new and deeper ways each day. God is wonderfully patient with us and our shortcomings, and He’s delighted when His people seek after Him and keep discovering more of what a life of trust looks like.

If you’ve got time you could read the whole of the first three chapters of Genesis today. Or just choose one chapter and reflect on its truth.

Reflection Questions:

1. How much do I appreciate the gift of being human - made in God’s image?
2. Do I really believe that God’s plan for my life can be fully trusted?
3. What is something that God is encouraging me to trust Him more with at the moment?