We say that worship is a lifestyle, but how many of us actually live it?
Merriam Webster defines lifestyle as “a particular way of living: the way a person lives or a group of people live.”
If that’s the case, this is pretty important stuff.
It makes sense, right? The Bible isn’t silent on this matter:
“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God (I Corinthians 10:31).”
All.
Do all.
Whatever you do.
I’m no theologian, but from my perspective that doesn’t leave any stone unturned. No facet of our lives is exempt from the glory of God. We don’t keep any for ourself. We don’t hide anything behind closed doors. There are no secrets, no facade, no silence when it comes to God and His glory.
He is a jealous God – passionate for our full attention, admiration, and affection. And He’s the only being in the universe that can demand such loyalty. It’s right for Him to do so.
All of our lives should reflect the greatness of God in Christ through the Holy Spirit. But so often this worship is reserved for the holy moments…the spiritual parts of our life such as church attendance, devotions, small groups, & when we’re listening to worship music.
In the grand scheme of our week, that’s a small amount of time. What about the rest?
Is Your Worship A Lifestyle?
If your worship is a lifestyle, it affects every part of you. It’s not just a conversation you have, a t-shirt you wear, or a conference you attend. It is…you.
Consider your 5 senses:
- Are you using your eyes to constantly see more of His glory and stand more in awe?
- Are you using your ears to be tuned into the voice of Holy Spirit?
- Are you using your mind to comprehend the mysteries of God through the Bible?
- Are you tasting and seeing that God is good?
- Are you feeling strong affections for Christ deep in your bones?
- Are you reaching out and extending God’s grace to the world?
If I’m honest, I’m far from it. Most of the time I’m swirling in a world of dirty diapers, sleepless nights, selfish pursuits, and overflowing to-do lists.
I recently finished Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit. I must say, it was one of the most insightful, helpful books I’ve read in a long time. The whole premise of the book is about automating our lives to see the results we want.
Stop Making So Many Decisions
If worship is to become a lifestyle, it needs to be automated – second nature. You shouldn’t wake up in the morning and have to decide whether you’ll read your Bible or not. It needs to be an automatic action.
You should haven’t to decide whether you’ll love Jesus today. It’s automatic. It needs to become a habit.
I think that’s the problem with the practicalities of “doing all” to the glory of God. We rely on our decision making power as to whether it will happen or not.
Simply put, that’s hard. I’d rather eat cookies than broccoli. I’d rather sleep in than pray. I’d rather read a gripping novel than the Bible. Resolutions aren’t enough. A task list isn’t enough. Putting it on the calendar isn’t enough. We know this is true because we’ve all ignored these things plenty of times.
But as Charles says in his book, a habit can be changed when you associate a habit with a certain cue and determine a reward. For example, if I want to spend time in worship each morning, I need to identify the current habit hindering that from happening. Maybe currently you hear the alarm, hit the snooze, and sleep another hour.
In order to change that, you need to associate the habit of morning worship with the alarm. The reward could be a closeness with Christ throughout the day that you wouldn’t experience otherwise. See how that works? It’s all about training yourself to develop a worship habit.
What’s Next?
When I say the words “habit” and “automatic” I don’t mean mindless, boring, heartless action. I mean, like Aristotle says, “We are what we repeatedly do.”
Therefore, to become a worshiper, we need to repeatedly worship. I want that action to become as natural as breathing, brushing my teeth, and eating my meals. Because it’s of even higher importance.
Let’s start a dialogue. I’d love to hear from you how you make worship a habit.
How can we keep ourselves from simply running to Jesus when there’s a tragedy and make it more second nature every single day?
Come leave a comment. Your comment will take this post from decent to epic. It’s just better that way. You can leave a comment by clicking here.
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He is the air I breathe, He is my Living Bread, He has set me free. Jesus my Lord, my friend. He is my mend. Without Him I would not be.
I am at the end of a work situation that I do not know whether I might be staying or leaving. In this I have found more understanding of the impact abuse had on me during my developmental years, and how this affects today. My kids have grown up with this sometimes very depressed and often anxious mom who goes to church a lot and for a time quit church altogether and has wanted to kill herself at times and did not hold back in saying so.
I do not share this to say how great or terrible I am, but to praise God for being Faithful and helping us here. in the struggle I am going through EMDR and other faith based counseling, connecting with friends who love Jesus and struggle with gender identity and everyday life, and being part of the regular and irregular lot of this community. This wonderful mess God made.
He does not make junk. God is good and so are we. He heals the broken and where we began is where we start, this is intimacy.
This week as I wait for a meeting, I wait on Him, I look forward to how He is helping me sort out the guilt from the shame and I prepare it joyfully. People are not bad, and people do bad things, and He never wanted that for us, and He has not left it at that. Thank you Jesus.
As a musician, I praise God at every waking moment by playing for Him or just simply listening to worship music. When there’s no radio, a tune is still in my head, lifting Up praise for God.
Love it!
i go with that consciousness that; worship was what i was made for and if am not doing it so far as my life and living is concern, it is an error.
God-given talents we show how grateful we are for them. And it shows our satisfaction with what God has given us with. Let us be grateful and worship God in a way that will please Him. When we worship God, it is more than music. we use our talents as we aim to glorify God shows how satisfied we are in our relationship with the Lord.