Your first worship

I am so excited about the number of  'church things' going on these days. Everyone is involved in one thing or the other- events, conferences, concerts, and many more edifying programmes. The body of Christ will greatly benefit from these. However, it is very easy to get so carried away with service and forget our core mission here - Worship (beyond the lifting up of hands).

In as much as God is well pleased with us raising a sound of thanksgiving and praise unto Him, and spending ourselves towards kingdom advancement, He is much more pleased with our lives surrendered unto Him as our first worship. No act of worship or service beats that. We were created for God's purpose and pleasure. Our whole essence of existence is to live pleasably to God.

Revelation 4:11

Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

Worship connotes submission and total reverence to God most high. It entails seeking out what God's will for your life is and following that course; spending time with God, and seeking direction for your living. When we are in the centre of God's will, our lives in itself become the sacrifice. Any act of service or lifting up of hands we do then becomes the sweet smelling fragrance that is pleasing and acceptable to God and of positive addition to the body of Christ.

Romans 12:1

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

It is easy to forget that our obedience and the yieldedness of our lives take the first position in our walk with God before any other act of sacrifice. When we offer sacrifices, they must be presented out of a yielded and obedient life that has been offered to God.

Saul mistook the difference between sacrifice and obedience (1 Samuel 15). After disobeying God in the battle against the Amalekites, he thought that appeasing God with the best of animals that were brought back in disobedience would make God pleased.  He missed it. Obedience is always better than sacrifice. Our submission first, before our act of service.

Ananias and Sapphira thought that they could tag along with others in the donation towards the welfare of God's people (Acts 5:1-10). They never understood that their sincerity mattered more to God than their donation.

Therefore, as much as you sing songs of worship, let your life be the melody. As much as you sow seeds and make donations towards kingdom advancement, let your life first find its root in Christ. As much as you give yourself away to church commitments, let your life be given away to God in total surrender and quality fellowship. Only the lives that are committed to doing God's pleasure can give God acceptable worship.

Psalms 103:21

Bless ye the LORD, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure.

Please, always remember this: 

Every act of worship or service for God's kingdom must be an extension of the submission of our lives to God.

Your life is your first worship!

#worship #livingsacrifice