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Consider This: Who Needs Worship?

 



Why does God need our worship? The events of Matthew 14 provide at least one answer.
 
This chapter starts with the beheading of John the Baptist (verses 1-12). This is the first in a series of events that indicate things are about to become much more difficult for the believers.
Next, the scene shifts to a crowd gathered on a hillside in Galilee. After listening to Jesus teach all day, the apostles realized that these people had nothing to eat. They brought the problem to Jesus. He took a child’s lunch and fed the entire group of five thousand men plus women and children. Afterwards, they picked up twelve baskets of leftovers (verses 13-21).
 
Then Jesus told them to get in a boat and cross the Sea of Galilee. As they went, a storm arose, and the apostles were scared. They struggled along until Jesus came to them walking on the water. Peter tried walking on the water too and sank. After Jesus rescued Peter, they got into the boat, and the storm immediately stopped (verses 22-32).
 
Pay very close attention to what it says next: “Those who were in the boat worshipped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God’” (verse 33).
 
John the Baptist’s death did not cause them to worship. They were brave on their own. Listening to Jesus teach did not cause them to worship. They were good on their own. Serving people did not cause them to worship. They could serve on their own. They worshipped only after Jesus did something that they could not do on their own.
 
Eugene Peterson said, “Worship is the strategy by which we interrupt our preoccupation with ourselves and attend to the presence of God”.
 
In other words, worship is the tool that allows us to recognize God’s activity in our lives. Worship stops me from focusing on myself and causes me to focus on God. Worship happens when we understand who God is and what he has done. Worship allows us to see our lives from a spiritual and eternal perspective. Worship reminds us that bigger things are happening than what we see or understand.
 
In the end, God does not need worship.
 
We need it!
          

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