Word for the day by Christian Education Forum

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Worship: Celebration of Faith
Rev.4:1-11

“You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” (V.11)

Revelation to those who open their hearts
In the first verse of this chapter we see the door is opened to John who has a deep, intense spiritual encounter with God and he is witness to one of the most wonderful sights ever imaginable to the human mind - God and the Throne of God. When we open our hearts to God in faith, He will reveal the glorious things of Himself and this world.

God alone worthy of Praise
The four living creatures represent whatever is noblest, strongest, wisest and swiftest in the created order. Yet, they were praising God night and day. The twenty four crowned elders symbolize authority but they showed their subservience to God by casting their crowns at the throne of God and falling prostrate at His feet. The secular society we live in tends to worship not God but other things - money, success, physical beauty, sex, fitness and recreation. We worship whatever we organize our lives around and whatever we put first in our lives. We are by nature worshipers of self,  thereby corrupting the God-instilled drive to worship and make ourselves little gods and attempt to place ourselves at the center of the universe.

No matter what position or power we hold, no matter how wise are, no matter how successful we are in our career or life, we still owe God our lives and our all. God alone is supremely worthy of our praise, our love, our devotion and our service; both because of who He is, and because of what He has done. Saying that is authentic worship.

Created to Worship
Today’s key verse summarizes this entire chapter in Revelation. We should worship God because of one reason - we are created to worship - not for 2 hours on a Sunday morning, but 24 x 7, Sunday through Saturday and throughout all the days of our life. We are created that we might know Him and that in knowing Him we will praise and worship Him with our existence.  We need to be praying, listening and worshiping Him every day. And if we all did that, it would not only transform our worship, it would transform our Church.

Prayer: Lord our Creator, we cast our crowns before Your throne and confess that you alone are God. Help us to live our lives as a pleasing sacrifice. Amen.

Thought for the Day:
“Worship is a quickening of the conscience by the holiness of God; a feeding of the mind with the truth of God; an opening of the heart to the love of God and a devoting of the will to the purpose of God” – Unknown

Abin Varghis , St James Mar Thoma Church, London

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