What We Worship

​I recently read this quote from Tony Reinke, author of 12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You:
 
“The object of our worship is the object of our imitation.”  (p.111)
 
I was struck by how closely that quote follows the scripture that you now find on the banner at the top of “Worship Notes.”  Romans 12:1-2 reminds us that we are to be conformed to the image of Christ, not transformed by the world around us.  So often, however, we allow the culture, entertainment, and general media around us to subtly shift the way we think, dress, behave, talk, and even believe.   It occurs in some of the most simplest of ways… and is often so gradual that we barely recognize the changes that are occurring.  The psalmist wrote this in Psalm 19:14
 
“May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” (NIV)
 
Many in Christian circles tend to gloss over the word “Meditation” given how secular culture has used it, but here we are reminded that our intentional mental foci should be things that are pleasing (or acceptable) to God.  While it may not be readily visible, what we spend our physical and mental energy on is what we tend to imitate.  Which brings us back to our opening quote:
 
“The object of our worship is the object of our imitation.”
 
It is easy for us as followers of Christ to think of “Worship” as limited to the realm of music or specific actions we take as we gather as a Church.  What Paul wrote, what the Psalmist wrote, what Reinke wrote reminds us that our worship is defined by what we dwell on, by what we imitate.  Reinke could have easily switched the sentence around: what we imitate is what we are worshipping. 
 
What are you worshipping?  What parts of your life have, on close examination, become more like the world than like Christ?  What have you been meditating on that brings Glory to God, or what have you been dwelling on that does not bring your heart closer to Jesus?
 
Take a moment today as we near the end of the week to think on how we can be transformed into imitators of Christ as our true worship!
 
For His Glory,
-Pastor Zach