Born To Worship
You were born to worship. It's in your spiritual DNA. You have always worshipped one thing or another, and you always will.
Originally, we were created to worship God, and we are only complete when we worship God. But ever since the fall of man, it's our fallen nature to pick cheap substitutes. Today we exalt rock stars, athletes, favorite teams, and celebrities.
Centuries ago, there weren't many good substitutes, but it was wired into man to worship, so he invented things, puny little idols to worship. Man simply can't NOT worship. I guarantee that you are worshipping something or someone. But the greatest idol that we worship - is ourselves. To the extent that we are not worshipping God in spirit and in truth, we are worshipping ourselves. And we don't even know it!
Jeremiah 17:9 says, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve."
The Lord searches the heart. The heart is deceitful above all things. There is nothing in this world more deceitful than the human heart. Lately God has been telling me that I have no clue what is in my heart. I've been assuming that the thoughts of my brain and the doctrines my mind agrees with are what's in my heart. Way off! We cannot know what is in our heart, unless God shows us. That's why that scripture continues by saying the Lord searches the heart. He's the only one who can see in there!
The enemy of your soul is adept at changing the focus of your worship away from God and toward yourself. If you fall for it, you die. That's why Jesus said, "Whoever seeks to find his life will lose it." When we become the object of our worship, we die.
The bible hints that Satan was once called Lucifer, and he was the chief angel of worship. In heaven, a worship leader outranks any other ministry. Lucifer saw the glory of God in great detail. But he lost his focus, because he became the focus of his attention. The angel of worship got so bright with glory, just from being near God, that he confused God's glory with his own. He began to worship himself.
"You said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High." But you are brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit.'" (Isa 14:13-15)
Lucifer convinced one-third of the angels in heaven to worship Him instead of God. And God let them! But the glory that covered Lucifer quickly turned into darkness. They soon found out that Lucifer was not a source of life. Only God is. And so the rebellious angels became destitute. They were brought down to the depths of the pit. They became starving scavengers. They had no source of life within themselves, so they could only feed off of others.
Now man enters the scene. When God created man, and gave man free will, the fallen angels decided that this was their opportunity. Lucifer, or Satan, made his move. His goal was to get man to worship him. Why bother? Because Satan never forgot how awesome it looked to see all of creation worshipping God, and Satan had to have that. Satan had become self-worship. When we let pride fully own us, with nothing holding it back, pride insists that everyone worship us. So Satan wanted to win man over to his camp.
So how could Satan get man to worship this pitiful, wretched creature instead of the perfect, loving, powerful, wise, glorious Creator of the universe? Not easy. It's like Phylis Diller wanting to win a beauty contest. She couldn't win straight up. Neither could Satan steal our affections away from God in a fair fight. Adam and Eve were beholding the glory of God! God was way more attractive, beautiful and awe inspiring than the serpent. Not even close.
What could compete with God for our affections? The same thing that got Lucifer - OURSELVES!
"You can be like God. You can be worshipped. It's not about God, it's about you!" It worked. He tricked man into placing himself at the center of the universe. Satan succeeded in getting man to worship him, because he got man to worship Satan's nature: the nature of self worship. And now man was under the dominion of Satan.
You and I are breaking free from this grip. In looking to Jesus and trusting Him to save us and own us, we are getting free from the awful darkness that covers us. But we are in process. And we need to understand what helps this process, and what hinders it. It's all about the object of our worship. The more we can worship God, the more we are wrestled away from Satan's grip and into the kingdom of God, where we are free. But the more we worship ourselves, the more we fall back under the influence of Satan.
We've got to get discernment for the sin of pride. I used to think that pride was just something that a few people struggled with. How wrong I was! Every one of us has pride and self worship in us. And it only takes one tiny little seed of pride to do us in. Pride unchecked becomes anger, jealousy, murder, self promotion. The only reason a lot of people aren't a raving, power hungry lunatic seeking glory and power is that they don't have the self confidence to pull it off. Fear prevents it. Doubts inhibit us. Thank God!
The answer is not to starve each other out. Kids who never get affirmed by parents do not grow up to be wonderfully selfless and considerate of others. They tend to become more self absorbed than most. So where's the balance? How do we affirm our kids, and call forth their spirits to life, without feeding that self-worship nature? We love and affirm them, and we call them to lay down their lives for others. Which means we have to model that. But most of all, what our kids need to see is us worshipping God above all else in our life.
I heard someone say that there is no limit on how much we're allowed to love people or things, as long as we love God a great deal more. That's why Jesus said to "Seek first the kingdom of God" and then all these other things that we want will be given to us as well, in their proper ranking. It's when something begins to rival our affections for God that we get into trouble.
I really believe that there are really only two things competing for our worship: God, and ourselves. It may look like 100 things are capturing our affections, but those things are simply treasures that we are gathering up as a means of worshipping ourselves.
The first girl I dated, I really thought I loved her with a selfless love. I thought I put her way above myself. Until she broke up with me, then I quickly saw how most of my affections and loyalty weren't for her, they were for her being MINE. It was self worship in hidden form.
Parents, there's no legal limit on how much you can love your children, as long as you love God more. And remember, God loves His children, but out of love, God allows persecution and trials to refine His children and make them more Christlike. If we want our children to be able to stand like a warrior against the enemy of their souls, we need to let them see battle.
God gives us tons of love for our children, but somewhere along the line, our nature of self worship will even try to turn that love into self worship. I watched one Mom make some of her kids out to be angels. It really looked like she worshipped a couple of them. But really she wasn't worshipping them, it was making those kids an extension of herself, and trying to convince all of her friends how wonderful these kids of hers were; but those kids didn't feel worshipped, they felt used. They knew it wasn't real love. It was self-love in a twisted form. It's really all about self worship.
The danger that every bible teacher faces is worshipping knowledge of God rather than God. Jesus hit that nail on the head, when He spoke to the teachers of His day and said, "You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life."
I'm guilty! I go there all the time. I think most bible teachers bounce back and forth between feeling inadequate and feeling proud. But the answer isn't to stop reading the bible or teaching the Word, the answer is to lay down my pride, my self worship, and lift up Jesus in my heart.
There is only one way to stop worshipping self: start worshipping God.
When you get to heaven, you will be worshipping God constantly. And you will not be bored! You won't be glancing at your watch every 5 minutes. You will give God his due in heaven. You will worship Him fully. You cannot worship God as fully here on earth, but He knows that. He knows the limitations you face, and you touch His heart when you fight against your own nature to worship Him. Heaven is more impressed by a fallen human who goes against the grain of his own heart and chooses to praise God - than by 100 people who have already gone to heaven and worship God intensely. It will be pretty much automatic in heaven. God won't be shocked when you praise Him there. But it means more here!
For all eternity, your testimony can be that in spite of everything, you worshipped God. You put to death every thing in your life that rivaled your affections for God, and you worshipped Him even though you could only catch an occasional glimpse of His goodness.
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