Berni McAvoy - Aspects of Worship

I believe that worship is the call of God on every believer’s life! We are all called to worship ministry - to minister unto the Lord with our lives. Sammy Tippet put it this way in his book “Worthy of Worship”

“The call to worship is universal and eternal. It is the call to all people, in every tribe, nation and generation. IT IS THE HIGHEST CALL WHICH CAN BE MADE TO AN INDIVIDUAL”

(Worthy of Worship, Sammy Tippit, Scripture Press, 1989)

Worship is our primary calling in life! It is the 1st commandment! It is nothing to do with who we are or what we have done and it’s not even about what God has done for us - although it is important to thank Him. It is about who God is! It is about the fact that He is worthy of worship just because He is God. It’s about giving God the honour that is rightfully His.

Secondly, I believe we need to worship - it is inbuilt in us by the one who created us, everyone has a need to worship someone or something.

A W Tozer expressed it this way, he said:

“Deep calls to deep, ... the soul senses it’s origin and longs to return to it’s source”

Worship is a longing within us for connection or connectedness to the one in who’s image we are made. As Christians we have the privilege of knowing who to direct that longing towards, Jesus Christ, for He alone is worthy of our worship.

Over the past few years I have found myself in a place where I have been largely unable to do the things I once thought of as ‘worship ministry’, but by the grace of God - during this time I began to re-discover a place of quiet surrender in my own heart and I have been brought back to the simple truth, that above all, worship is an attitude, not an activity.

Paul says in Romans 12:1: - ‘I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship’. We all have a worship ministry. We are all called by God to worship Him with our lives on a daily basis!

The Northumbria Community use the expression, ‘Availability and Vulnerability’ Living a life of availability and vulnerability is living in an attitude of worship.

Finally, I believe worship is simply TO EXPERIENCE THE PRESENCE OF JESUS. To be in His company and share the intimacy of close relationship with Him. Relationship is the key! We cannot worship someone we do not know personally. Worship is a response of love to the One who poured out His love for us in Jesus Christ.

To come before The Lord in worship we need not be in a place of wholeness ourselves, although worship brings wholeness, we need not be ‘all together’, as the song says,

“. . .Lord receive the sacrifice,

of a broken heart” (I Will Offer Up My Life, Matt Redman, © 1994 Kingsway)

Jesus accepts us, in our brokenness, in our incompleteness with all our insecurities and uncertainties. He gave His life for us. To worship Him means that on a daily basis in activity or in stillness, we need to surrender our life back to Him.

Perhaps like me, you are not always in that place with that kind of attitude - I know I miss the mark BIG TIME but I want to try to be in that place more tomorrow than I am today...!

It is good to keep in mind that in it’s simplest expression, Worship is an attitude of the heart.