Week 21: How do I worship?
Every family has different traditions – ways of doing things that are handed down from one generation to the next. Traditions in our church family are great, too. But by themselves, religious habits and activities aren’t true worship. Let’s go to God’s Word and learn how to worship Him the right way.
Be ready to read the following passages:
Let’s start it.
What are your favorite family traditions and why?
Let’s learn it.
Traditions can make the time you spend together as a family more enjoyable. The same thing is true in your church family. However, participating in religious activities doesn’t automatically mean you are offering worship to God. Religious habits are just empty actions if they aren’t backed up by obedience to God’s commands. That’s exactly what the Israelites did when they entered the Promised Land. Check out Jeremiah 7:22-23 to see what message God sent to His people.
Israel wrongly thought that worship was limited to the sacrifices they made at the temple. Their offerings to the Lord couldn’t be accepted as true worship because they were disobeying God’s instructions at the same time. We also sometimes confuse our church activities and religious habits with worship. Those things certainly can be worship if we’re living the way God has told us to live. The Apostle Paul said something very important about worship in Romans 12:1-2. Ask a family member to read those verses.
Did you catch that? Worship becomes an everyday activity when you choose to give what you do to God as an offering. The starting place is in your thoughts and attitudes. It’s much easier for your behavior to please God if you’ve allowed His Word to change how you think. Everything we’ve talked about today can be wrapped up in one verse. Who is ready to read 1 Corinthians 10:31? Go ahead and read that verse now.
Worshipping God isn’t limited to what we do at church. The things that make up your ordinary life can have new meaning when they are done for God’s glory. When you think about bringing glory to God with everything in your daily routine, then you’ve started to develop a lifestyle of worship.
Let’s discuss it.
- Name ways that your family enjoys worshipping God together at church.
- What everyday activities can you offer to God as worship?
Let’s do it.
Do you remember what we’ve learned so far this month about worship? Worship isn’t just singing praise songs to God or attending a church service. True worship begins by recognizing the Lord as the One and only God and loving Him with every part of who we are. Now we’ve learned how to participate in worship anywhere and at any time. Have you ever thought about the fact that anything you do can be an act of worship? By simply offering God each thought, attitude, and behavior, your life will be an offering that pleases the Lord. Decide on specific ways each member of your family can use what we’ve learned today to worship God this week.