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One of the ways to understand a concept in bible is to study its first occurence in the bible. Hence, to understand worship it is crucial for us to study when it was first mentioned in scripture and in what context.
If you do a little search on the online bible , you will find the first mention of the word 'worship' - Gen 22:5
"He said to his servants, 'Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.'"
That is where man first encountered the concept of worship.
Days ago, Abraham had a heart-wrenching word of the Lord to sacrifice his son to God on Mount Moriah. Then at the foot of the mount he said to his servant that
1) we will worship
2) 'we' will come back
'We' here refers to Abraham and his son, Isaac. Herein lies two elements of worship :
1) Sacrifice
2) Faith
We ascend to the heavenlies in our worship through sacrifice, and we descend to the earth to establish His kingdom through faith.
When we worship the Lord, we lay down all we have, all we are and all we want at the altar of sacrifice. Yet we find life. It is an irony that we are called to be living sacrifice.
What is sacrificed? Our selfish desires. What is living? Our relationship with Christ. It is within this truth, that Paul said, "To die is gain, and to live is Christ"
After we worshipped the Lord, we respond to our challenges with faith. Abraham said "we" will come back, believing that God will indeed provide the physical sacrifice and fulfill His promise. How is faith produced?
When we worship God, we worship Him as He is not as we want Him to be. Contrary to most songs, God is not magnified by us. He is already the Almighty One. What is magnified is our perception of God, and that produces faith because faith is seeing God as He is.
Worship then is not singing along in a church celebration service, or hummming along the latest CD from Hillsongs. True worship stems from a heart of sacrifice that releases faith upon an encounter with the living God.
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