‘And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice - the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.’ (Romans 12:1 [NLT])
It’s this verse I turn to more than any other to remind myself and others that worship isn’t a once-a-week singing-in-church event; it’s about the way I live my whole life. What I do on a Monday morning matters just as much to God as how I sing to him on a Sunday morning. So does how I behave around the people I play frisbee with. I can worship God as much through a huck (frisbee lingo for a long throw) as I can when I’m playing my guitar in church. More importantly, how I conduct myself when a frisbee game isn’t going my way, how honestly and boldly I let people know about my faith in Christ, how much I drink on a night out... can all either be part of my worship to God or bring grief to him.
Life of Worship or Times of Worship?
But if worship should be a whole-life venture what’s the point of getting involved in church? Why sing songs? Why get up half an hour earlier than I would otherwise to read some scripture and pray? Over recent years, people promoting a whole-life view of worship have often pointed to the fact that the Israelites had a ‘holistic’ view of life. They argue that they didn’t create divisions between the sacred and the secular, instead seeing God as much in the mundane as they did in their temple worship, rituals and sacrifices.
It’s true that the Israelites generally had a more holistic view of faith and worship than we’ve tended to have in the West, where we have often relegated our faith to the private sphere, behaving one way on a Sunday and another during the rest of the week. However, what is interesting about the Israelites is that, for them, setting aside a special day in the week for corporate worship, having particular rituals and festivals to help them remember God’s acts in history, eating certain things at certain times, sung worship, pre-written prayers, and so on, didn’t seem to detract from a whole life of worship. Rather they appear to be an intrinsic part of it.
Whole Life Worship and Times of Worship
‘Worship slots’ and whole-life worship aren't mutually exclusive options. Rather the first has the potential to fuel and inspire the second. We should aspire to a whole life of worship. We need to recognise that how we behave on a night out with our friends can be as much worship to God as when we sing together in church. But this doesn’t mean that the habits, rhythms, rituals and corporate meetings we get involved in don’t matter.
On the contrary, I am better equipped to worship God on my own in the library when I’ve spent time praising him with others in a corporate gathering. I am better able to discern what kind of behaviour pleases God, and will therefore be best for me and those around me, when I’ve been regularly reading the Bible in the morning and committing my day to him. I am bolder in making my faith known in my frisbee club when I’ve been inspired by other people’s stories whilst sitting in a church meeting.
Let’s aspire to a whole-life of worship and let’s also recognise that designated times of worship are essential in cultivating and maintaining an attitude of worship in every sphere of our lives.
‘Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.’ (Romans 12:2 [NLT])
