“To worship or not to worship” has never been the question, for all of God’s created beings are inherently worshippers. No matter how strongly someone may deny it, every person on earth is instinctively a worshipper. The issue has never been shall we worship or not? It is always a question of WHO we will worship. It’s the object of our worship that creates the greatest controversy. I have watched people offer fruit and flowers, burn incense, bow to stone and wooden idols and march in processions in honour of their gods. Even within “Christian” churches there are those who bow to man made images in worship.

Psalm 115:4-8 says Their idols are merely things of silver and gold, shaped by human hands. They cannot talk, though they have mouths, or see, though they have eyes! They cannot hear with their ears, or smell with their noses, or feel with their hands, or walk with their feet, or utter sounds with their throats! And those who make them are just like them, as are all who trust in them.

Man made gods are of course completely powerless in themselves, but the demonic force behind them holds billions of people in bondage and fear. Christians worldwide hold to the truth of God the Creator as the One true God and that He alone is to be worshipped. Yet even a casual observer can see that many Christians offer worship to lesser gods in their lives. True worship means “to adore, revere, exalt, magnify, esteem – it’s to hold God in the highest place” No Christian intends for their worship to be directed to something less than God, yet it often does. We can vacillate in our worship, we move from God to ourselves, our possessions, our careers, even our family who we are to love and care for can become a lesser god. We can even make our preferences on how “we” like to worship – a god, when our comfort, our bodily position, our insecurities, our fears, or sometimes even our stubbornness overtakes and controls our focus, adoration and praise of God, then we have bowed to another force seeking to gain our attention and our worship. As much as we are inherently worshippers, we also have the propensity for idolatry. Worshipping something less than God seems more natural. It’s easier to relate and therefore easier to worship something seen than someone unseen. It is part of the reason Jesus came to earth, so we could see what God is like. He came as our redeemer, our healer, our provider and our comforter, yet He is more than that. HE IS OUR LORD. If our concept of Jesus is only of a good man, or as merely the one who provides what we want, our worship will always be shallow and sporadic, it will only rise to the level of thankfulness, for it will be based purely on whether we get what we want, but when we see Jesus as he truly is, the Lord of lords, our worship is not based on ourselves, our current circumstances or preferences, but on Him, He is worthy of expressions of worship that take us beyond our comfort zones, to worship Him in spirit and truth engaging our whole being, true worshippers of a living God, not mere spectators.