10 day Worship Devotional

10 day Worship Devotional

Worship is for God. We worship Him with all three parts of ourselves: body, soul, and spirit. If one part is disengaged, we are not truly worshiping. As a tool music helps us engage all three parts of ourselves with all three parts of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Music affects our heartbeats, communicates emotions, and moves our spirits. But music itself is not worship. The word worship is a compressed form of the Old English term worthship, which means to give something worth. We worthship God by communicating and demonstrating His value.

Let’s dive into a 10-day devotional centered around worship through the Fresh Start Bible. For the next ten days we will come back every day to this blog post and add a new verse for you to reflect on and grow deeper in.

November 15th, Day 1: Worship is Sacrifice

Genesis 22:5 “Stay here with the donkey,” Abraham told the servants. “The boy and I will travel a little father. We will worship there, and then we will come right back.”

Abraham is willing to give God the greatest sacrifice he has to offer—his son—because God is worth even more to him. Now, God doesn’t actually want us to sacrifice our children, so He provided a ram for Abraham to sacrifice instead. Today, God provides the sacrifice through Jesus, but the principle remains true. Worship (valuing God) must cost the worshipper something. We sacrifice when we offer God our time, our money, our songs of praise when our circumstances don’t look praiseworthy, and our attitude of gratitude when we feel like grumbling. Sacrifice is always uncomfortable and always has a price. Worship is sacrifice.

-Zach Neese

November 16th, Day 2: Whom Do We Worship?

Isaiah 42:5 “God, the LORD, created the heavens and stretched them out. He created the earth and everything in it. He gives breath to everyone, life to everyone who walks the earth.”

For believers, there can only be one answer: We worship the one true God. This fundamental statement of faith creates a distinction between Christians and those who simply worship a god or manufacture idols or prized objects that are worthless. Isaiah plainly says there is one Creator of the heavens and one Giver of life on earth. That “one” is the only being deserving of glory and praise, and to give worship to any other is foolishness. That “One” is He whom we call God.

-Aaron Crider, DMIN

November 17th, Day 3: Worship is our Prerogative.

Genesis 2:16-17 “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden–except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.”

In the light of eternity, only one choice truly matters: will we choose to live with God or without him? God created a choice so Adam could exercise his free will. The man could choose to obey, partake of all the acceptable trees in Eden, and be connected to God. Or he could choose to disobey, eat the forbidden fruit, and sever his connection to God. God could make us do what He wants us to do, but He gives us a choice. We do not worship because we have to. We worship because we get to choose, and we choose the greater thing­–connecting with God.

-Thomas Miller

November 18th, Day 4: How Do We Worship?

Romans 12:1, emphasis added “Dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice­–the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.”

Worship always begins with a heart submitted to God. The position of your heart determines whether your actions are merely physical gestures or also spiritual ones–if you are connecting to your emotions or connecting to God. If the position of your heart is not worship, then nothing you can do with your body will be either. Worship does not require a talented singing voice, the ability to play an instrument, or a resume full of community service. God does not require the “right” words or actions; He just wants the right heart. When you speak or act in God’s name, you worship. 

-Mark Harris

November 19th, Day 5: Worship is Love.

John 14:21 “Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.”

Worship begins with a motivation from the heart, but it never stops there. The motivation is love, and that love must find expression in order to be considered worship. Unexpressed love is no love at all. God is not convinced by mere lip service. He reads our body language. There are some ways we may think we are expressing love to God that He doesn’t see as love at all. For instance, God does not feel loved just because we sing a song that says we love Him. God needs more from His people. Worship is love expressed God’s way.

-Zach Neese

November 20th, Day 6: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit

Genesis 1:26 “Then God said, ‘Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us’” (emphasis added).

Scripture testifies that the one true God exists eternally in three persons. These three persons are the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Genesis 1:26 shows the Trinity being revealed when God speaks to Himself in the plural. So who are these three persons of the Trinity?

 God the Father is the eternal and loving creator of the universe, the Source and Sustainer of all life and all things.

 God the Son­­–Jesus Christ– is the eternal Son of God who has been one with the Father and Holy Spirit from the beginning. Through Him, all things were created.

 God the Holy Spirit is also eternal God and Lord of life. Active throughout the entire Bible, the Holy Spirit was given to the Church in the fullness of power on the Day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit empowers, comforts, and guides believers.

 This truth can be a lot to grasp, but the reality is that we worship the one true God of all creation whose nature is expressed in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There has never been nor ever will be any other like Him or above Him.

-Aaron Crider

November 21st, Day 7: Worship is Our Purpose.

John 4:23-24, “True worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship Him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth.”

God created us to worship. When we worship in spirit, our spirits connect with God’s spirit. We reach beyond the physical realm in which we live and connect with the spiritual real where God dwells. When we worship in truth, we declare that we wholly and openly offer our lives to the Lord. There is no false humility or artificial harmony. Nothing is held back. We can worship the Lord in spirit and in truth, choosing to fulfill our purpose and His greatest desire by giving our lives wholly to Him.

-Thomas Miller

November 22nd, Day 8: Pride and Worship cannot coexist. 

Isaiah 14:14 “I will ascend above the tops of the clouds. I will make myself like the Most High.”

Though he was created to be heaven’s worship leader, Satan fell because pride entered his heart. He wanted to “be like the Most high.” Pride is an easy trap to find ourselves in; after all, it rarely presents itself as a dangerous sin. Instead, pride begins as the briefest notion of “I deserve …” When we begin to think we deserve more, we are entering the danger zone. We must remind ourselves of this truth: everyone has sinned. We all fall short of God’s glorious standard (Romans 3:23). The only thing we “deserve” through our own merit is death. How amazing it is, then, that “the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). God alone is worthy of all worship.

-Mark Harris

November 23rd, Day 9: Worship is to obey God’s commandments.

John 14:21 “Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.”

God is self-sustaining, self-governing, and utterly complete within Himself, yet He created humans because He wants a relationship with us. Relationship is why we were created; therefore, relationship is our purpose. Some people look to culture or entertainment to find their purpose, but the real answer is in the Word of God. We were created to be with God, and we show our love to Him by doing what He commands. Worship is not about singing songs or showing emotions, though both can indeed be aspects of worship. At its core, worship is about fully offering ourselves to the Lord and obeying His commandments.

-Thomas Miller

November 23rd, Day 10: We are His pleasure.

When we experience the incredible power of Christ’s love and forgiveness, our hearts change. One sign of this heart-change is the transformation of our desires. We no longer want to live to please only ourselves. Instead, we want to be pleasing to the Lord. When the apostle John had a vision of worship in heaven, he saw 24 elders bowing before God’s throne saying,

“You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created all things, and they exist because you created what you pleased” (Revelation 4:11).

God created what He pleased and what pleased Him—us! We are His prized creation. Psalm 149:4 says, “The LORD delights in his people.” When we understand how much God cares for us, we in turn desire to be pleasing to Him. We worship God by offering all that we are for all that He is.

 -Thomas Miller


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