A Lifestyle of Worship
Worship is simply a humble preoccupation with God.
― Clyde Cranford
Dr. John Snyder is the Pastor of Christ Church New Albany, director of Media Gratiae, and author of multiple Bible studies, including Behold Your God: Rethinking God Biblically.
Behold Your God: Rethinking God Biblically is a 12-week multimedia Bible study that aims to lead the student to dive deep into the study of God’s revealed character and consider how our view of God impacts everything about how we live.
In “Beholding God: Restoring Worship in Our Lives,” week 7 of Behold Your God: Rethinking God Biblically, Dr. Snyder writes,
We hear a good deal about lifestyle evangelism. Today we will look at lifestyle worship—worship that goes beyond the walls of a church and into areas of life that we normally feel aren't particularly spiritual.
Worship is spiritual. It is the soul of the believer responding to the worth of God in every event of life. Because the believer's life is being conducted with the worth of God in his thoughts, his actions will be different—different in a way that reflects the worth of God to those who observe his life. Worship occurs on Sundays in a church building, but it can never be limited to that event. The individual Christian has been rescued in order that he might worship God in all of life.
Two realities form the atmosphere of worship as a lifestyle. First, the Lord has ownership of all our life. Paul writes to the Corinthians:
For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in
your spirit, which are God's. (1 Corinthians 6:20)
…Second, the God we worship is omnipresent (all-present)…God is everywhere, always everywhere, effortlessly everywhere. He doesn’t travel, No place is far from God. No place can contain God or exclude Him. Paul said to the people of Athens:
... He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and
have our being . . . (Acts 17:27b-28a)
These two facts make it possible for every task in the Christian's life to be offered to God as an expression of adoration, gratitude, and worship:
1. Every part of the Christian's body and soul was purchased by Christ.
2. The all-present God is the Christian's unchanging environment.
Whether we are cooking, cleaning, mowing, shopping, driving, dressing, working, or playing—it can all be part of our worship. The businessman can go into his office and think, "The King of heaven and earth is here, and I will hold fellowship with Him all day long!" The mother of little children who wakes up to the cries of the baby can say, "The eternal God is here today, and He has called me to abide in His love while I go about my many tasks." Our lives are to be Godward. This Godwardness is the joy of the Christian.
A. W. Tozer warned his readers not to compartmentalize their lives into sacred and secular activities. All can be sacred. This is a revolutionary thought. Getting dressed in the morning can be as truly an act of worship (depending on how we do it) as singing in church with fellow believers. These activities are not equal in significance, but they can both be acts of worship…
What is the result of all of this? There never need be any moment of the Christian's life, never any event or duty that is worthless. No more killing time, always looking forward to some upcoming event that is more spiritual or significant. Every moment can be packed with the significance of God's presence and our worship. Here is the secret of a purpose-filled life: I am His, He is mine and He is here. He, the King, accepts my mundane daily tasks which I do out of love for Him as worship, just as He accepts my prayers and songs. They are offered in love and made acceptable through the finished work of Christ.