What is Worship?

I have been thinking today about worshipping and our use of the word 'worship'.

 

I was listening to a live stream of a 24/7 prayer room whilst I was finishing off a few things at work and it got me thinking about listening to worship songs. If I just listen to them, but don't sing or 'engage', am I worshipping?   If I have them on in the background whilst I'm doing something else - cooking, ironing, driving, photocopying etc. - is it worship?   Am I 'doing'; worship?   Is worshipping an active or a passive thing?

 

Often we use it as a noun.  A thing.  An object.

 

How was the worship?  How long is the worship at your church?  Who leads the worship?  Worship leader.  Worship group.  Worship band.  Worship song.  Worship music.  Worship CD.  Great worship! 

 

Recently, there has been a shift away from seeing the word as a noun, and a move towards seeing it as a verb instead.  Something we do.

 

Let's worship God.  After the talk, we'll worship for a bit.  We'll start by worshipping.

 

However, when we use it as a verb, it is often restricted to something that we do for set periods of time and in a certain place, or in a certain way.  It is usually linked to music. 

 

We restrict our understanding and see worship as something that takes place at church (or some other 'church' meeting/gathering), for a set period of time, with other people and with the accompaniment of music of some sort.

 

But I think worship is bigger than something that we do.  It is who we are.  All of the things that we say and think and do are acts of worship - they are acts of devotion and love and they reveal what is important to us. 

 

Josh Riley writes,

"Worship is everything we think, everything we say, and everything we do, revealing that which we treasure and value most in life."

We don't just worship God.  We can 'worship' all sorts of things, we can give our devotion and affection and attention to a variety of things or people: money, success, fame, ourselves, another person, a relationship, a sports team, a TV programme, a celebrity, a job.  The list could go on.

 

Whatever we spend ourselves on - money and time and attention - is what we worship.

 

Paul explains how he wants us to worship God with  our whole lives, by simply being who we are and offering that to God:

"So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering."

 [Romans 12:1 MSG]

 

Everything that we do is an act of worship.  The question is, what are we worshipping? 

 

 

[There are some other really interesting definitions and ideas about worship on this website - http://worship.com/2010/09/what-is-worship-some-definitions-to-consider/]