Worship from an Eternal Perspective

“Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying: “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!” The four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped.” (Revelation 5: 13-14, AMP)

We’ve all done it.

Maybe it’s the Sunday scaries, with a new work week looming on the horizon. Maybe it’s our family or the plans we’ve made for our weekends. Maybe our own personal workload between balancing a clean house, social lives, love interests, whatever it may be. 

But sometimes, we enter the church building on a Sunday, and our heart isn’t really there, much less prepared to worship God as a body. At one time or another, we’ve all looked around the room and other people, mentally checked out of service, or got caught up in the actual mechanics of worship, singing, clapping… to realize that our “worship” was actually just a sing along, like we’d do at a concert or along to the radio in our cars.

And even more, sometimes, we’re not even paying attention entirely. Our minds are already set on something else that we have to do and other places we have to be.

Like I said, we’ve all been there. And even though that’s true, it’s still no excuse. 

So right now, as you’re sitting there reading my words, I want you to take my next questions into account. Read them, close your eyes, be honest and reflect: Is your attitude on Sunday mornings an attitude of worship, or an attitude of going through the motions to make you feel like you’ve worshipped God? When you worship, is it just singing, or is it something that affects your very lifestyle– transforming the way you interact with others and cultivate your home? Does your worship leave the four walls of the church building? Do you enjoy worship?

And it’s okay if your answers are underwhelming. If they are, let’s take today as a spiritual heart-check, and an opportunity to get back on track.

The reality is that worshiping God is our primary objective after receiving salvation. If we were all cars, worship would be the oil that keeps all our moving parts spiritually healthy. And in keeping with that analogy, it’s important to note that just like some vehicles only run on certain kinds of oil, our worship is only pleasing to God and benefactory to us when it’s genuine. None of that “synthetic” stuff. 

And I know we’ve talked about this before; how some worship coming out of the Church of today is more about performance and notoriety than actual worship. We’re not getting into that today, I’m only using it as a point that only worship driven by our love for God is reverent, God-pleasing worship, just like 1 Corinthians 13 teaches us.

So when we come into church on Sundays, and our hearts aren’t prepared and focused on our love for God, and instead on every other thing we have going on, of course our worship is lack-luster. And if we make that a habit over a long period of time of just going to church in order to check a box, then we get ourselves into this slump of not actually delighting in the reason we go to God’s house to begin with. 

All of a sudden, our lives become devoid of worship. It stops bubbling up within us throughout the week as we go through our lives. Truth is, if we can’t worship in church, amongst other believers, in the place we should be intentioning ourselves to be free to worship in, how can we expect our enjoyment to constantly live a lifestyle of worship to flow into the rest of our lives and habits?

We can’t.

And the hard, yet ultimate truth is, if we don’t enjoy worshiping here, we will never enjoy it in eternity, where worship will become our only, round-the-clock activity. If we can’t set our minds on Him for 20 minutes on a Sunday to convey our delight in Him, how will we honestly be able to do it forever and ever at the end of time?

I have a co-worker who visits the psychic that’s next door to the office. There were a few months where she went often on her lunch breaks. I don’t know what was going on in her personal life that she needed to seek that much counsel from such a source, but eventually, I asked her why she kept visiting her so often.

“C’mon, Cortney,” she said, shrugging it off. “You believe in the spiritual. Don’t you want to know your future, however uncertain it might be? Just to be prepared.”

I lovingly told her that while I believe in the spiritual, I trust in a God that’s much more reliable than the Miss Cleo next door. And even more than that, no matter what happens to me here, I know what I’ll be doing for all eternity, so no matter what happens between here and there, that future is pretty certain.

So with the knowledge that no matter what, if we are saved and believe in God and serve Him with our lives, and that’s where we all end up, then we should be doing a whole lot more on this earth to make sure we worship Him with the reverence and delight he is due.

The Book of Revelation, the very ending of the Word of God and the foretelling of time itself, says this in chapter 22, “I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things. But he said to me, “Do not do that. I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers the prophets and with those who heed and remember [the truths contained in] the words of this book. Worship God.”

Because at the end of it all, when there is nothing left, not even evil itself, we will only have one thing to do. Worship. So when we stand together on a Sunday, and even when we go out into our every day lives, let’s make sure we’re approaching God on His throne with the worship He deserves. Put away any other distraction. He is worth all your attention, devotion, and love.