We worship because of what God has done to us and for us. That much is for sure.
Often our individual worship happens when we come to the realization that God has blessed far more than we could ever have imagined. We’ve been given life when we should have received death. We’ve been given health when we should have received sickness. We’ve been given prosperity when all we should have received is hardship. Over and over again God gives us what we don’t deserve, because he loves us. And so, we worship him.
This is good and right and I don’t want to say anything to disparage that type of worship. It’s the type of worship God is due and it’s the type of worship we ought to give him. And yet, I wonder if there’s a different type of worship we can take part in. A type that doesn’t take away from the worship given from the recognition of God’s good gifts, but the type of worship built upon the truth that we’re in a spiritual war.
We struggle, fight, and wrestle because we’re in a war “not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12, NIV). The question then is: How can fighters worship? They can worship in defiance.
Christians who worship in the midst of a spiritual war can worship in defiance. Not in defiance to God for what he’s doing or allowing to happen during this spiritual war, but in defiance to the rulers, the authorities, the powers of this dark world and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. In other words, against all those spiritual realities that would set themselves up against God. Christians can worship the goodness of God in the face of all those spiritual realities who would love nothing more than for us to doubt the goodness of God.
Think of the statement you can make to the spiritual realities around you (and the world!) by listening to your favorite song while your hurting, reading Scripture when you don’t feel like it, or loving someone who hurt you, all as an act of worship to your Lord and God, Jesus Christ. Think of Job worshiping when he lost almost everything (Job 1-2). Think of Elijah when he was surrounded by the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18:1-40). Think of Jesus himself when he was being tempted by Satan (Matthew 4:1-11). I dare say there is no more powerful strategy in this war we find ourselves in than to worship when everyone says we shouldn’t.
To worship God when the world both physical and spiritual says you shouldn’t is an act of defiance in the best way possible.
May God give you the grace and peace so that you may give yourself to this type of worship.