The Worship Test

by Dan Langerock

Have you ever thought about the concept of worship? Man instinctively worships something whether self, an object, a person, work or whatever. But today let us consider the worship of God and how we approach Him. Here are some questions to help you to realize the way you are worshipping God compared to how you should:

1) Does it awe you to think that you are in the presence of the Creator of the universe when you worship? Have you taken this aspect of worship for granted? Sometimes it is easy to fall into the trap of ho-hum when we go to church, and we forget why we are there and whom we are worshipping. We need to examine our motives for why we go to church in the first place, to worship God who loves us dearly—all other reasons for being there are trivial compared to this one.

2) If you go to church, do you look forward to it with anticipation? Do you resent this interruption to your busy schedule? Perhaps even dread going at all? Would you rather be somewhere else instead? Do you think about the game you are missing, your house that needs cleaning, the fishing you would like to be doing? Our time and thought-life are two things we can also offer to God.

3) Are you consistent in your worship? Do you believe it is a vital part of your life? Do you honor this portion of your life enough to prevent distraction from keeping you from it such as people coming to visit you when you are preparing to leave for church, phone calls at the last minute that could wait for another time, etc. Is it the most important thing in your life to be there consistently without fail, not in a legalistic sense but because you love God and want to be with others who also love Him?

4) Do you have personal worship times outside of church? Are you consistent in these, or is it okay to skip whenever you want? Is God and His worship the most important item in your life? If not, what else is more important? God wants to be your number one priority but you have to make the choice that makes that happen.

5) If you pray, what is the content of these prayers? Complaining about what is happening in your life? Magnifying God for who He is? Asking for God’s will to be done in your life? Asking for needs you have, solely, without praise for God who has supplied your needs?

6) Do you act one way on Sunday and another way the rest of the week? Is worship and what you believe part of your lifestyle? If you want your life to be a good witness to others, you must be consistent in this area.

7) After a church service, how do you conduct yourself? Are you considerate of others in the parking lot? Do you talk about what happened in the service, your blessings, etc.? Do you talk about the latest sports scores? Your topics of conversation say a lot about you and where your priorities are. It is said that Oral Roberts always went off by himself after a service to meditate on what was said and maintain that worship awe he had acquired during the church time. He didn't indulge in talking about the game on TV but concentrated on what he had learned from where he had just been.

8) When you need help in your life, is God and godly counsel your first resource or your last? Do you have people you can turn to who are good examples of godly character, someone you can look up to and ask for help when that need arises? Is the person you confide in consistent in their spiritual life? Do they practice what they say? What you believe is often evidenced by whom you consult when trouble comes.

9) Do you take time to be quiet before the Lord prior to the service? It is important to quiet yourself outwardly and inwardly before worship so you can receive what God has for you. Otherwise it is like static interference when you are trying to listen to the radio or television—the message doesn’t always get through.

This is the time the Lord speaks to my heart about what He wants me to write. My best poems and articles come from this quiet time before the Lord prior to the service.

10) How do you conduct yourself at church? Do you reverence where you are or do you act like you do anywhere else? Do you respect God and others by your conduct at church? You can learn a lot about a person when you watch how this plays out in this setting.

Who is God to you? Is He worthy of your praise? Is He your top priority in life? Does God care about you? Do you care about God? Is worshipping with others of like faith important to you? These are questions we must answer for ourselves. However, the answers we derive will help to tell us about ourselves, and what is really important to us. Hopefully, they will be the right answers.