40 Days of Purpose: Made to Worship

It has been just over a week since I started reading The Purpose Driven Life and began the 40 Days of Purpose. It has been one of the most enriching weeks of my life. I have spent more time in the Word than I have my whole life, at least that’s what it feels like. I know more of what my purpose is and I’m only eight days in.

It seems the five purposes of life are the key to everything and today the focus is on worship and being made for God’s pleasure.

KEY VERSE

“The Lord takes pleasure in his people.” Psalm 149:4 TEV

God created us to enjoy us. He finds pleasure when He watches us especially when we are living for Him. He finds pleasure in seeing us enjoy life and we can enjoy things because He enjoys things too – we are made in His image.

We have great significance in God’s eyes, we live for His pleasure. We live because He loves us and wants us to love Him and be part of His family.

“He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.” Ephesians 1:5 NIV

It pleases God when we love Him and live for Him, the main way we do that is through worship.

WHAT IS WORSHIP?

Worship is bringing pleasure to God. It’s not just a genre of music or a church service. It is a lifestyle.

“Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship.” Romans 12:1 CSB

This verse from Romans 12 defines worship. It tells us that worship means giving ourselves to God, surrendering our desires and replacing them with His desires because it pleases Him. It is giving back to God everything that He has given us.

Worship is our first purpose in life. It is not for our gain but to bring glory and pleasure to God in every area of our life. It is an act offered in spirit and truth.

It is our response to God’s love. It is knowing and loving Him back because worship is not one-sided. We love Him because He loved us first. Knowing He loves us is one of the most important things for us to know and the most important thing we can do is return His love.

HOW DO WE LOVE GOD BACK?

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” Deuteronomy 6:5 CSB

This verse from Deuteronomy 6 tells us how to love God back and worship Him—that is, with all our heart, soul, and strength, with every fibre of our being. He wants us to love Him thoughtfully, passionately, and practically. He wants us to worship Him because we want to, not out of duty.

A worship lifestyle involves praising God’s name and hoping in His Word (Psalm 119:147). It consists of keeping our thoughts on Him (Psalm 63:6) and being grateful (Psalm 119:62).

“Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.” Psalm 105:4 CSB

Loving God means continually seeking Him throughout the day. It is praising Him at all times (Psalm 113:3).

Being grateful is the easiest way to express our affection for God. There are so many things to be thankful including the breath in our lungs or the food on our table. The greatest way to express love is to give your life and that’s what God wants from us. He wants us to give up the way we want our life to be to live the life He designed us to live.

The fact that God wants us to live the way He designed for us shows us how much He loves us, it shows He wants better for us. He can give us more than we can dream of. If He loves us that much why wouldn’t we worship Him?

Worshipping God takes focus, it takes energy and attention.

“The mindset of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit to God’s law. Indeed, it is unable to do so.” Romans 8:7 CSB

Our flesh wants us to choose selfishness and do things that feel good in the moment rather than choose what is good for us long-term. It’s not just our flesh we battle with either, we face a spiritual battle every day that God fights for us but the choices we make can determine whether the battle is won or lost that day. Thankfully even if the battle is lost we know that the Lord has won the war which is a comfort.

We have to choose to focus on God in each moment, to not let ourselves be tempted by the world and to choose truth over lies.

“Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.” Romans 12:2 CSB

This is why we sometimes dedicate parts of our day to spending quality time with God so that at least part of the day is spent having undisturbed time with Him. The rest of the day we still need to focus on Him but having that undisturbed time with Him can be the best part of the day.

“You will keep the mind that is dependent on you in perfect peace, for it is trusting in you.” Isaiah 26:3

When we focus on Him, He is faithful to give us peace beyond our understanding, even in difficult times.

Everything we do can be an act of worship when we do it for the praise, glory and pleasure of God and that includes housework or dealing with people we don’t like.

“So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:31 CSB

Our work becomes worship when we dedicate it to God and are aware of His presence while we work. It is love in action.

“Whatever you do, do it from the heart, as something done for the Lord and not for people.” Colossians 3:23 CSB

We dedicate our activities to God by doing them as if we were doing them for Jesus and keeping a constant conversation with Him throughout our days.

It’s not what we do that matters to God but who we do it for. So we don’t need to constantly be asking God what career He wants us to do we can trust if He wants us to do a specific career He will lead us to it. Otherwise, it doesn’t matter what we choose as long as we do it for Him.

We all worship something even if we don’t realise it, we see it in cultures across the world. Whatever we give most of our attention, affection and ability to is what we worship, our idols. If it’s not God we need to change.

The greatest sin is to worship something other than God and it’s also our greatest temptation. We exist to please God (2 Corinthians 5:9), to worship Him and fulfil His purposes.

“Now without faith it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” Hebrews 11:6 CSB

To please God we need to first have faith as Hebrews 11:6 says. To have faith we simply need to believe God exists and His promises are true. We also need to know Jesus as Lord and Saviour because He is the way to the Father and the way to Heaven. It’s because of Jesus we have the hope of eternity.

But when we do have faith all it takes to please God is to live a lifestyle of worship. A life of focusing on Him, loving Him and using our skills for Him.

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