Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. Hebrews 13:15-16
The past few blogs have discussed how to pursue your desires, the things that you are passionate about. For some of us, we find ourselves, instead of pursing passions, stuck in the mundane repetitive world we call daily life – day after day of the same routine with no end in sight. How do we approach this very common challenge in life? And how do we continue to worship God through it?
The interesting thing about these verses in Hebrews is that music and song are not mentioned. What is mentioned is “giving thanks to His name” and not forgetting “to do good and to share”. It is easy for us, especially if you are a musician, to never think of worship as reaching beyond the boundary of hymns and congregational worship songs. That is what we, in our culture, typically define as “worship”. But, these verses place a slightly different lens on what worship is and can be.
The very idea that we are offering a “sacrifice of praise” implies the fact that it is not easy. It is a sacrifice. And a sacrifice always costs something. Does singing a song in church on Sunday morning really cost you anything? Some days, maybe. I’ll admit there are times when the last thing I feel like doing is singing or even leading worship. But most days, it is easy to just get into the routine of singing worship songs because that’s what we do as Christians when we are at church on a Sunday morning. The reality is this costs us very little, and also has very little impact on those around us. I do not mean to devalue worship music in any way, as I think it is an important part of our Christian walks and worshiping God in song is a biblical principle. What I am challenging however is the concept that it is the ONLY way that we worship God. This is often not the sacrifice of praise talked about here in Hebrews. We are told in this passage to “do good and to share”. When was the last time you were able to do good and share where it cost you nothing? It is almost impossible to actively do these things without it being at least some sort of a sacrifice. These are sacrifices that as we see in verse 16 that God is well pleased with. Do you wish to please God with your worship? Offer a sacrifice of praise by doing good and sharing!
Worship is a lifestyle. We worship Him with our lips giving thanks to His name, but also in our deeds as we love and serve one another. So once again, how do we deal with the daily grind? How do we stay motivated to give God glory when we don’t feel like it? We offer a sacrifice of praise with our lips. We choose to give thanks to God in every circumstance and then we help those in need. You have heard the verse, it is better to give than to receive (Acts 20:35). When we share what God has given us with those around us with thanksgiving and praise to God on our lips, we find that life becomes amazing and exciting again. Somehow by worshiping God we become vulnerable to Him working in us and changing our lives. It definitely requires us to step out of our comfort zone and we have to choose to offer that sacrifice of praise. But when we do, God uses those very acts of worship to Him to impact and change us.
God does not need our worship. He is not insecure, but He knows that we were created to worship. And when we do what we were created for, we find contentment, joy, happiness, and peace. Let us be worshipers of God every day; not just through song but through the way we live.