The second ingredient required for a successful life of worship is faith. In the above passage, the term “earnestly seek him” can also be translated as worship. So we can flip this passage around and say, “Those who worship Him must believe (have faith) that He exists and He will reward them.” Then the first part of that passage says that when we believe those two things that we will be pleasing to God, and we know from Romans 12:1 that true worship pleases God.
Let’s look at Abraham. If you continue to read through Hebrews chapter 11, you will find the many ways that Abraham exercised His faith, but let’s look at how He showed his faith in the midst of worship. This first instance of the word ‘worship’ in our English bible comes in the account of Abraham being asked to sacrifice his only son, Isaac.
Gen. 22:5 (NKJV) 5And Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.”
This passage reveals our first two ingredients of worship. The first ingredient, humility, is seen in the fact that Abraham equated his sacrifice of Isaac to worship. In Abraham’s view of things he was simply going to worship. The second ingredient, faith, is seen in the last thing that Abraham tells his servants, “…..we will come back to you.”
How could Abraham make such a statement? Because He had a deep faith in God. He believed with all his heart that God would either spare Isaac’s life, or He would raise Him from the dead. Why? Because God had given him a promise about his seed many years prior to this turning point event. Abraham knew that God existed. There was no doubt in his mind. He had experienced the hand of God many times in his life. He also knew that God was going to reward him for His act of worship. Remember what Paul said in Romans 4, “Abraham believed (had faith), and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” In other words—heaven took note of him because of his faith.
While the act and attitude of worship is 100% selfless, God has promised that He will reward us for our diligence. When we worship it is just fine to expect a blessing, because God promised that He would bless us. God may ask us to do things in worship that stretch our comfort level. He may even ask us to do something that challenges our theology. That’s where faith kicks in. When God asks those things of us and we trust Him to work everything out for good, we will be led to the third ingredient of true worship—obedience.
The key here is that we must believe that God is a keeper of His promises. When we hear the voice of God leading and prompting, we cannot disregard what He is saying. We must turn our ear to listen.
#3: True Worship Has Obedience
So far in this study we have looked at two ingredients that are vital to the life of a worshiper—humility and faith. If either of these are missing from worship, then I believe we have not entered into true worship the way God has designed it. The final ingredient we are going to look at is obedience.
Obedience, if you will, is the icing on the cake. Obedience is the key that finalizes our worship. We cannot come to God unless we have first humbled ourselves. Then as we enter His presence He will begin to speak to us, and we must make the decision to believe Him or not. But all of that is in vain, if we do not put it into action through obedience.
RELATED: More Humility Quotes
Now as you have been reading these articles, I suspect that some of you may have become a little frustrated. You’ve probably felt that I am trying to make the act of worship more difficult than it should be. I am not trying to make it difficult, I just want you to understand that when we make the choice to worship, there are some things that God requires of us. Remember that in the days of the Tabernacle only one person, the high priest, was allowed into the Holy of Holies. Why? Because he was the one that was totally clean, and he was the one that was bringing the pure sacrifice before the mercy seat.
Obedience is simply our faith in action. James put it best in James chapter 2 by saying that faith without works is 100% dead. And lo and behold he begins to talk about Abraham.
James 2:21 through James 2:22Â (NKJV)
Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect?
Abraham’s worship (the sacrifice of Isaac) was not made complete until he actually attempted to carry out the call of God. So what does that mean for you and your life of worship? If you truly want to worship the way that God has ordained, you must be prepared to move. Be ready to heed the voice of the Lord. Remember that Jesus said in John chapter 4 that true worshipers must worship in Spirit and in Truth. Now watch this. We worship in Spirit through our humility and faith and we worship in Truth through our obedience—faith in action.
If Abraham had not gone through with the sacrifice of Isaac, he would have nullified his faith. He would have also shown that his plan was more important than God’s plan, and that is pride which nullifies humility.
I challenge you to humble yourself before God, allow Him to speak to you and give you instruction, and be ready to move when He speaks. Then I believe God will look down and say “Behold, this is my child in whom I am well pleased.”
