Resurrection and the Need to Worship

[HKHaugan]

Since we have opened the whole subject of needs what we are going to find is that it is like opening presents at Christmas. There is one box after another to open. When one is opened the excitement grows as each next one that has your name on it appears. The difference between getting gifts in the world sense and having the gifts from God that meet our needs is that the first one is all about me and accumulating things that all center on me. The second is that God’s gifts take the spotlight off of me and direct my energy toward God and others. God’s gifts take me out of myself. The first just gets me into the mood for wanting more for myself. The second gets me into focusing on God, His ideas, His direction and then seeing the heart needs of others. In the process what we discover is that our outer focus is God’s way of growing us to the point that my needs are merely the path of recovery that involves seeing God more and more, others more and more and myself as a channel for the Spirit of God to use as He wishes. That is what personal fulfillment is all about. The less I am concerned about myself (which is one our deepest needs) the more I become the person God intended, the more I become involved in the lives of those whose needs are to discover God and His plan for them. The real excitement of self-discovery is that I only become a true self when I am absorbed in God and others.

Now take all that into worship. Why does God want us to worship Him?

First, it takes us out of ourselves and into a conscious awareness of His presence and what that means. He calls us to worship Him not because He needs it but because we need it. Worship is a deep spiritual need when met moves our mind, heart and spirit onto a new level. You let yourself go in prayer to Him, singing to Him, praising Him, honoring Him and listening to His Word. It is centering the mind and heart in Him. It is going to Him in faith with our spirit. Worship is opening our entire being to Him. What we discover along the way is that we were made for worship. We were made to recognize that we are images of God, persons like him, to love like Him, care like Him, be relational like Him, creative like Him and unique like Him. The emphasis is on ‘like Him’ since that’s exactly what we were made to be, images and likenesses of Him.

The more we worship Him the more we move into that incredible awareness of the deepest conscious reality of mind growing, heart shaping, spirit filling energy that begins to experience every detail, every mood, every attitude in others and how God works all that together in and through us. We find we are walking into an atmosphere where every particular aspect of being is being realized. The more personal we are with God the more personal we become. That is why we come to Jesus. He is God as the Father wants us to see Him. “This is my Son, the One I love, listen to Him,” the Father tells us. Jesus says the same thing, “When you have seen me you have seen the Father.” What greater display of that truth than Jesus on the Cross giving Himself over to death for His Father who sent Him to make that clear through His Cross and Resurrection.

Second, it takes us out of ourselves and makes us conscious that we are part of a family at worship where all those around are in their way enjoying what we are, feeling what we do, hearing what we hear and letting the Holy Spirit take what we bring and renew it for His work. The Lord has made us to be a family of people in recovery just as we are. When we know that others around us are bonded in the same Lord, the same faith and the same baptism we begin the process of being restored in trust, trusting God, trusting others and trusting ourselves to let ourselves go in God together.

Third, having worshiped together, we grow together to share with the world outside of the spiritual family to open our doors, the doors of our minds and hearts, to those who are trapped in the lostness of this world’s fear and anxiety. We become more conscious, more aware, that others out there created in God’s image and likeness don’t know God as He has made Himself known in Jesus. He desires their hearts, minds and spirits to be open to receive His presence, His healing and find the potential He has built into their lives. He wants the same for everyone everywhere.

“3 Give praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In his great mercy he has given us a new birth and a hope that is alive. It is alive because Jesus Christ rose from the dead. 4 He has given us new birth so that we might share in what belongs to him. It is a gift that can never be destroyed. It can never spoil or even fade away. It is kept in heaven for you. 5 Through faith you are kept safe by God's power. Your salvation is going to be completed. It is ready to be shown to you in the last days (1Peter 1:3-5 The Message Bible).”