“Could we with ink the ocean fill/ And were the skies of parchment made /Were every stalk on earth a quill/ And every man a scribe by trade /To write the love of God above /Would drain the ocean dry/ Nor could the scroll contain the whole/ Though stretched from sky to sky”

We always have a reason to worship the Lord. The world is filled with his goodness; the earth proclaims his majesty. In the morning He brings the sun up and at night He pulls it back down. He is the author of our every breath and heartbeat. We live our lives engrossed in His goodness and surrounded by His glory.

Even so, we all too often find our spirits low in the midst of Sunday morning worship. Our hearts, so easily distracted, often need reminding of our God’s great worth. Over the next few months I will be writing a series on reasons to worship God in an effort to bolster our spirits with joy and enrich our lives with praise, even when it doesn’t come naturally.

The most foundational reason to worship the Lord is because what He has done reveals who He is—His constant, unchanging character that is of infinite worth. To understand the history of God’s providence and fulfilled promises is to understand His ultimate goal in history; bringing Glory to the precious lamb, Jesus Christ. Below I’m going to give you two catalysts of God’s glory that will help you to lift your heart in worship, even when you don’t feel like it.

Worship Catalyst #1: The Glory of God in Creation

 

The God we worship created the heavens and the earth in perfect order. Were the earth moved towards or away from the sun even a matter of miles it would be uninhabitable. Were the orbit of the earth any slower or faster life could not exist.  Yet, God created our complex universe with a single word He literally speaks our dense and complicated universe into existence from nothing (Genesis 1). And then, the same God that created gravity and heat and water and animals created us, each with specific and purposeful likes and dislikes, physical features and souls. The same God that created all of existence also created you and I, and even more than that He knows us intimately and desires to have a relationship with us. Psalm 139: 1-4 says “You have searched me, Lord, and you know me.  You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.  You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.  Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely.”

Worship Catalyst #2: The Glory of God in the History of Redemption

 

We can see God’s providential hand on our lives so clearly by the promises made and fulfilled throughout the new testament. As early as Genesis, we see whispers of the coming messiah. Early on they are faint, but they become very specific as the pages of the Bible turn. He gives to Abraham the Abrahamic covenant, promising that from his line will come a nation, a land and a people. At literally every turn God’s chosen people fall short of God’s standard of glory, yet God offers grace upon grace. He guides his people through the desert, through oppression and out of slavery. He gives them kings. He gives them the Davidic covenant with a promise that the Messiah would come from the line of David, specifically the tribe of Judah, and that He would establish a kingdom that endures forever. He waits until just the perfect moment in history and sends His son down to be a sacrifice once and for all time. God has had a plan from before time began, and He has always delivered. We can look through the pages of His word and see that He comes through every time. Christ, His life, death and resurrection, is the culmination of God’s promises.

What is especially important, however, is that his providence has never depended on who we are. God’s promises have never depended on our circumstances. They have never been contingent on how we feel that day.  God is faithful to fulfill his promises because of His nature. No matter how impossible things may seem, to the father of a nation with a barren wife or a tribe wondering the desert, God is always faithful. His plans always succeed. We can always depend on Him; not because of anything we can do or offer to Him, but because of His very nature.

So in light of God’s constant hand on our lives, we are enabled to live our lives as an offering to God. Romans 12 tells us “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” Obviously this has implications for corporate worship, but what this is really saying is that our very days ought to be worship. Our time, given and predestined for good works, ought to be handed back to God at every turn in a constant cycle of thankfulness for the blessings which he has poured out on us and praise.

When we are healthy, we have obvious reasons to praise. But even when we are sick, God’s goodness and his providence are still constant and He is still deserving of our praise. Even when life hurts, we have a call to praise; God’s worth and His glory don’t change with the circumstances of our days. His goodness is unfaltering. His faithfulness is constant. His glory endures all things. God has been good even when we get a bad diagnosis. God has been good even when we don’t get that promotion. God has been good even when our relationships are not. God has always been good, He has always been faithful and He is always worthy of our praise.

Luke Johnson

Luke Johnson

Luke is worship leader at CCBC.