Worship begins with the acknowledgment that God is worthy of worship. God is more than we can ever understand; more powerful, more loving, more mysterious. God is God and we are not. To worship fully we must seek to be in the presence of the living God, who has created, redeemed, and sustains all of creation. We worship God and give thanks for all we are and ever will be. We find our identity in our relationship with God and we find our hope for our future.
The prophet Isaiah spoke of the great hope we find in God. Hope for our future, hope for our redemption, and hope for justice.
He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. Isaiah 2:4
This vision of the future is filled with hope and filled with the expectation that God can and will bring peace to our relationships and our world. We place our hope in God because we believe that God's vision for the world will become a reality. We have hope because we know God's promises will be fulfilled. We give thanks to God in advance and we worship.
The faith community have been worshipping and giving thanks since the beginning and is captured perfectly in the Psalter:
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Psalm 103:1
The Psalms were written for congregational singing and this chorus offers great praise to the Lord. It seeks not only God's blessing, but that the entirety of the singer be filled with God's presence and blessing. To worship fully means that all that is within me is focused on God; my whole being is focused on giving God thanks and praise. This is a song worth singing and a prayer worth praying each day!
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