When asked by a Pharisee ‘What is the greatest commandment in the law’, Jesus replies ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment’ (Matt 22:36-38).
Worship is what we are created for – to love God. This incredible relationship that God has invited us into, is one of mutual love where He seeks intimacy and closeness with us. As we express and outwork our love for God, we worship Him.
Mike Pilavachi often describes worship as “The Language of Love”. If you love someone, you tell them, you praise them, you build them up, you thank them, you adore them. When we worship God in song or in prayer, we are expressing our love to Him as we tell Him how great He is or how worthy He is. For me, there is nothing greater than worshipping God in song with the church family and hearing the name of Jesus being praised all around me.
Outworking our love for God is both in the public and private times of our lives. In Romans 12:1 it says, ‘In view of Gods mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship’. Living lives of purity, pleasing God with how we live our lives is an act of love and therefore worship.
And we are able to love God because He first loved us. John 15: 13, ‘Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends’. Sacrificing His son on the cross was the Father’s ultimate expression of love for us. He chooses to be in a love relationship with us. In Zephaniah 3:17, ‘He will take great delight in you; in His love He will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing’. How incredible that God sings His song of love over us. Not only that, He has created us to sing back our love to Him.
To experience true intimacy and closeness with Him, we have to spend time in His presence. We cannot love what we do not know. As we draw aside to be with God, we learn more of His heart and experience more of His love. Psalm 46: 10 says, ‘Be still and know that I am God.’ It is often in the quiet and stillness that we hear Him speaking. Just resting in his presence, listening and waiting for Him to come is a clear expression of our worship to Him.
Let’s enjoy God’s love and love Him well.
By Chris Bryant
