Scripture
The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. John 4:23
Observation
IIs God an egotist? One blogger on a news story I read this week thinks so. I was scanning an online report about intercity youth on a government program being taught how to sing gospel style music. The bloggers after the story were caught up in a vortex of argument between Christians and skeptics about worship. One nonbeliever suggested that God was egostical because he enjoys the praises of his people.
What’s the truth? Anyone who suggests that God is egostical is making the Lord out to be something like an inflated human being, subject to the self-centeredness of that affects us all. I wouldn’t want to worship a God that small. Let’s lift the lid on that petty shoebox thinking. God is beyond his creation and before anything thing he has created. We are not dealing with some Greek deity who is just an inflated human with magnified faults. God is totally other than all he has made. He is in fact the only one outside of our world that we can rightly look up to. We praise him simply because it is right to do so. We wouldn’t want him to be anything less otherwise he would not be God.
God is not only outside of the world he has chosen to become part of it. He is not aloof, but concerned enough to become involved in human life through Jesus. Because of his great compassion he is a help for those who call on him. This means that our worship is more than a duty to a higher power, but a heart-felt appreciation for all that he is and has done.
But what about this insinuation that God is egotistical? Is God stuck on himself by urging us to praise him? No, that’s impossible. Consider the most concise definition of God: God is love . (1 John 4:7-8). God is the only being who uses all at his disposal for the benefit of others. The Lord is totally other-focused. It is impossible for God to be selfish with our praises. The praise we give to him is transformed into waves of love that he showers back on us. In fact as we praise the Lord we are doing ourselves a favor because what little we give to him is magnified and returned to us in abundance.
We are so honored be able to praise the Lord. The human being is the only creature that can lift its head to heaven and praise the Lord. All other animals look downward except humans. We are created to look and reach upward toward heaven. God is totally self-sufficient, yet he includes our words of praise as something he values. So in fact it is the Lord who does us a favor by allowing us to praise him. He is giving us permission to step beyond our world and into his own.
Application
“The Father is looking.†Those are probing words. He is looking for me to worship him.
Prayer
Father, thank you for the gift of praise and stir our hearts to worship you throughout the day and to make our daily living an act of worship. Amen.
