Worship is one of those words that gets used a lot in church but not so much in culture. And yet our culture is full of worship.
One definition says that worship is “extravagant respect or admiration.” Worship is a very human thing to do, even for people who aren’t religious. Have you ever watched tweens at a concert, with arms lifted up and tears streaming down their faces? That is the definition of “extravagant admiration.”
Worship is what people do. It is how we are wired. From the hero’s of ancient Greece, to the sports and entertainment stars of today, people will always find something or someone to worship.
Worship in ancient times often centered on natural gods. For example, Ra the sun god sat at the top of the Egyptian god pyramid, so to speak. But the Egyptians like many civilizations around the globe worshiped many different gods, and even combined gods.
This is why it was such a big deal when Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, told the Israelite people that they were not to worship any other god other than Yahweh. God is the One True God Alone.
But God wasn’t just being an ego-maniac like so many of the Greek gods were believed to be. God made a very compelling argument for why we must worship him alone.
We worship God alone because God created us, the universe and everything in it.
That is a pretty good reason to give someone “extravagant respect and admiration.”
God gave us another really good reason to worship him. God didn’t just create us and then abandon us to fend for ourselves. God has walked with humanity every step of the way from the beginning of time. God gave us the free-will to choose to love him or to love ourselves and go our own way. Most of the pain in the world comes from people choosing their own way, even some who claim to be following God.
We worship God alone because through Jesus he is the only one who is re-creating us.
Many things claim to deserve our respect and admiration. But in time everything and everyone will fall short of our expectations.
God is the One True God who created us, loves us and through Jesus offers to re-create us.