I Need to Worship

This I Believe

Meditations on My Core Christian Beliefs

Note: Three years ago, I wrote a series of meditations on my core beliefs. In preparation for the coming season of Lent, I am revisiting these meditations. 

February 13, 2025

I Need to Worship 

Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good! And evening passed and morning came, marking the sixth day.

Genesis 1:31

Read Genesis 1:26-28,31

The creation story of Genesis 1, 2 and 3 can be summarized as revealing a Good God who created a Good Earth and humankind in His image. God gave the humans a vocation: to be stewards of God’s Good Earth and all His creation. To be faithful stewards, humans needed to worship their Creator so that they could reflect God’s goodness through their vocation. But humans stopped worshipping God and obeyed a lesser being and thus sinned against God.

The rest of the Bible can be summarized as God working to redeem His creation.

As I meditate on the creation story, the relationship between seeking the life in Christ as my way of life and worship grips my heart and mind. For many years, Hebrews 12:28-29 has been a guiding light as I seek the life in Christ.

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe; for indeed our God is a consuming fire. (NRSV)

In the creation story, I see God’s desire for His people to stay in a right relationship with Him through worship and obedience which are both reflected in the passage from Hebrews. For the last several years I served as a pastor, I kept a light burning on my church’s altar, 24/7. For me, the light symbolized the presence of God, and was also a reminder that God can, and will, withdraw his presence from the church because of our disobedience. (See the Church in Ephesus, Revelation 2:4-5) Five years ago, I had an epiphany while attending a worship service, that for me was truly a service of reverence and awe for God. Since then, I am very mindful in every worship service, every service of Holy Communion: Are the words and actions of the leaders and people reflecting authentic worship, worship that shows deep reverence for our Creator God and worship that is in awe of the God who looked at a world that did not exist and spoke it into being through the power of His word?

My Takeaway: Jesus calls me to let my light shine (Matthew 5:16). One of my core beliefs is that I have no light to shine unless I am worshipping God with reverence and awe.

Sē’lah

My book on prayer,

First Think, Then Pray

is now available on Amazon Kindle.

 

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2025 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.