What does it mean to Worship God?

KIDS TALK ABOUT GOD

What does it mean to Worship God?

By Carey Kinsolving and Friends

 (Part Three of Three)

“We all get so involved in our silly little lives that we have made for ourselves to where we don’t have the time to do anything for God,” says Travis, age 12.

Worship is the way we see God’s larger purpose for us. A life of worship usually doesn’t make media headlines, but even the smallest things done in relation to God are significant because they’re p art of a grand plan.

Saying you don’t have time to worship God is like saying you don’t have time to breathe. If you don’t breathe, you die. If you don’t worship, you’ll wither and live small.

Oxygen deprivation does strange things to your head. I once flew to La Paz, Bolivia, which is almost 12,000 feet above sea level. For the first 24 hours, I felt disoriented and strange. Being too busy to worship God is similar to oxygen deprivation. You’ll feel unbalanced.

“Worship means fully opening your heart to God and expressing your true love and feelings for him,” says Christian, 13. “It means not just saying the words to a song in church. It means actually meaning them with your heart. Serve the Lord wholeheartedly.”

The Lord called David a man after his own heart, not because he never sinned. His sins are well chronicled. David went after the Lord with a whole heart. His heart is on display in the psalms he wrote.

A huge part of worship is thanksgiving, says Mitchel, 11. “Take time to thank God for all the stuff he gives you. All the stuff that you have was sent from heaven.”

Hmm. That’s a new perspective on possessions for some.

“Worship means to be thankful for God’s gift of Jesus dying on the cross,” says Brittany, 11. “It shows how much we love him.”

Christians should be most grateful for Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. One of the names for the Lord’s Supper is “Eucharist,” which means to give thanks.

We read about the early church in the Book of Acts: “Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread … “ (Acts 20:7). Fellowship was important in the early church: “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers” (Acts 2:42).

Bible commentators concur that the breaking of bread refers to a fellowship meal called the “love feast.” About 20 years after the church began in Jerusalem, the apostle Paul wrote a stinging rebuke to the Corinthian Christians for drinking too much wine at the meal, eating before others and failing to dis-tribute the food fairly. The fact remains that the Lord’s Supper as a fellowship meal was the predominant form of worship in the early church.

Where is it today? Most churches have traded the rich table-fellowship that characterized the worship of the early church when they assembled on Sunday for little plastic cups of grape juice and pieces of crackers served in pews monthly.

Think about this: Let’s worship the Lord like the early Christians by starting a Lord’s Supper revolution! Think of all the people who would rather come to a “love feast” on Sunday morning.

Memorize this truth: “Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight” (Acts 20:7).

Ask this question: Can you imagine millions of Christians eating together and enjoying fellowship every week around the Lord’s Supper as a fellowship meal?

“Kids Talk About God” is distributed by Creators Syndicate. To access free, online “Kids Color Me Bible” books, “Mission Explorers” videos and all columns in a Bible Lesson Archive, visit at www.KidsTalkAboutGod.org. To read journey-of-faith feature stories written by Carey Kinsolving, visit www.FaithProfiles.org.