Monday, January 02, 2006

Bless Me Oh God, Then I Will Worship You!

Pastors of big churches like tithing. I imagine pastors of small churches do as well, but I’ve only attended large churches. Anyway...They say that tithing is an act of worship. And I agree. I think it can be a mode of worship. So, what is my point? They tell you that if you tithe “God will open the windows of heaven and pour out blessing.” I’ve also heard a pastor say to his congregation, “We worship God so He’ll bless us.” That sounds fin and dandy on the surface, but let’s dig in shall we?

Both these statements are very similar and in both the statements, if you really look, the focus is on me - not God. Do we truly worship God so He will bless us? That seems rather selfish and even disrespectful. To me that implies that if God were to withhold His blessing (or bless me in a way that I didn’t specifically ask for) we would have no reason to worship Him. After all, He wouldn’t be holding up His end of the apparent bargain.

The fact that He created EVERYTHING isn’t reason enough to worship Him? The fact that He gave each of us life isn’t good enough? How about the fact that He offered His only Son as a redeeming sacrifice for our sins? Shouldn’t that drive us to our knees in thanksgiving? Even if we are poor, even if we are being unjustly persecuted, even if our entire world seems to collapse - we still have Christ.

Paul said, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21) So, my dear ones, what else do we need? What other reason do we require of God for us to offer everything we are to God in worship? We need nothing more than we have. Worship God because of who He is, not for what more can we get out of Him.

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