Chronic Worship

To live one’s life in an attitude of constant adoration and reverence toward God.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual [or reasonable] act of worship.

Romans 12:1 (NIV)

Have you ever stopped to think about the fact that the only reasonable response to God’s mercy and grace toward us is to give ourselves totally to Him? When Paul uses the word “bodies,” he is speaking of the entirety of our beings – the instrument of life. We have built a box around worship that allows us to reach in on Sunday and pull out our “sacrifice” to offer to God. This attitude violates two fundamental attributes of worship. The first is that true worship is an attitude of the heart – not an action of the will. The second is that this attitude of worship is not restricted by time or space. Our God is just as awesome in the office on Tuesday afternoon as He is in church on Sunday morning.

The dictionary defines the word chronic as “always present” or “habitual.” That is how we should think of our worship. It’s not something we do or say, it is who we are. Why is it so important for us to exist in a state of chronic worship? Jesus tells us in His encounter with the woman at the well.

“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:23-24 NIV)

Once again we see that worship is part of us. We worship in our spirit – our essence – our very breath of life. But there is another reason for us to assume an attitude of chronic worship. Jesus says that God is seeking true worshipers. Imagine if you can a holy God, surveying His creation, looking for someone who is actively worshiping Him. Would He find you worshiping Him in spirit and in truth? How about if it happened on Monday morning when you had to get up and get ready for work - or maybe on Thursday while you are fighting traffic on the way home from soccer practice?

It is my heart’s desire that He always be able to find me worshiping Him.

Praise is a heart lifted joyfully to a loving and merciful God.

Worship is a heart bowed in reverence and adoration before a holy God.

It takes both to maintain our walk with Him.