Worship-minded People

READ Amos 5-6

Once again we see God rejecting the worship of the people (5:21-23). This time the focus is on their dealings in the marketplace and in the gates (5:10-12). God is wanting them to see that their dealings with people need to be just and righteous (5:24). These are just as much acts of worship as gathering together in feasts and solemn assemblies.

You and I also need to realize this about our lives today. We so often fall into the trap of thinking that worship is only what we do on Sunday morning. We think we can live any way we wish the rest of the week then come and worship God as if all was right. But no, the Scripture makes plain that every act of our lives is potentially an act of worship —how we think, how we speak, how we relate to others — are all to be done “as unto the Lord.”

Paul makes this abundantly clear in Romans 12:1: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” Presenting ourselves to the Lord as a continual, on-going sacrifice of worship is what God desires from us. We can’t, like the unfaithful Israelites, think we are worshipping God on Sundays while being unjust and unrighteous the rest of the week.

Prayer: Father, you alone are worthy of worship. You are One who creates the heavens, who makes the morning out of the night, who controls the waters of the sea. You alone are worthy of our worship. And you are worthy of our complete worship every moment of every day. Help us to be worship-minded people.