Ordinary Worship

Ordinary Worship

by Grant Gaines

Google the words “top complaints” and you will find a list of various grievances longer than the Mississippi River. Here is a short list of several complaints I found in my search: people who talk in movies, people who chew food with their mouth open, people who don’t wash their hands after going to the bathroom, email spam, long lines, and my personal favorite, February 29th (apparently people don’t like having to work an extra day that year!). As you can imagine, the list of people’s complaints carries on and on.

We all have complaints of some sorts and our God is no different. However, there is a difference in the way we view our complaints and the way God views His complaints. We like to call our complaints “pet peeves” because they are cute little grievances that we all laugh about after the fact. On the other hand, God’s calls His “pet peeves” sins, and they are no laughing matter to Him.

When we think of sin we often focus our attention on the obvious sins such as murder, adultery, or lying while we completely overlook the ordinary sin of treating our relationship with God as common.

God does not take this lackadaisical approach lightly. He says in Revelation 3:16 (NIV), “So, because you are lukewarm–neither hot nor cold–I am about to spit you out of My mouth.” Do you know who God was addressing in this statement? A church that no longer had a passion for the Lord. Sure they went to church on Sundays and probably had a nice choir and building, but God does not merely look for a nice outer appearance, He looks at the condition of our hearts (2 Samuel 16:7)!

So the question we must all ask ourselves is how are we as Christians today allowing ourselves to become lukewarm in regards to our relationship with God?

The answer to that question has far reaching roots, but let’s tackle a couple of the more common habits. One of the habits we are prone to fall victim to is getting caught in a prayer rut where we find ourselves mindlessly repeating the same words or phrases as though it were a chant rather than a conversation with the Almighty God of Love. We can fall into a trance when we read the Bible if we view His Word as another item on the daily To-Do List rather than a personal word from the Everlasting God. Yet another way we can become lukewarm in our relationship with God is through our worship.

Enter Cain and Abel from Genesis 4. Do you remember the two brothers? Cain was a farmer and Abel was a shepherd. One day both Cain and Abel wanted to bring a sacrifice to the Lord as an act of worship. Abel brought the Lord, “…fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock” (Gen. 4:4, NIV, italics mine), while Cain brought just “some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord” (Gen. 4:3, NIV, italics mine).

Did you catch the differences in the offerings the boys brought? Abel brought the best of the best while Cain brought just “some” of his fruits. Not necessarily the bruised apples but certainly not his best fruits.

God’s response to Cain and Abel’s offerings offer us a grand insight into how He views our offerings of worship.

“The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering He did not look with favor…” (Gen. 4:5, NIV). Both Cain and Abel brought offerings, but God was only pleased with one of theirs.

You get the idea from the story of Cain and Abel and from Revelation 3:16 that God does not delight the least bit in any worship we give Him that is less than our best. In fact, it appears that He is quite displeased when we approach Him in a halfhearted manner.

With this in mind, can’t we agree that it is rather important to examine our own relationship with the Lord to see if we have any areas of lukewarm-ness? Are we only going through the motions of prayer? Are we speed reading through the Bible just to get it done? Are we lip singing the words of a worship song? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then our efforts are not pleasing God. In fact, we are actually enraging God with our unenthusiastic approach to our relationship with Him!

God so desperately wants a personal relationship with you that He was willing to give up His only son Jesus for you. His only requirement of you is that you either follow Him with your whole heart or not follow Him at all.

Which decision are you going to make today?

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©Grant Gaines 2013