Every single human being worships. 

Committed Christ followers to the skeptic to the atheists. 

Everyone worships something. 

In Genesis, we are let into the design of humanity. We are all made in God’s image. In other words, we are image bearers, and made to reflect the image of someone or something else at all times. 

John Calvin once said, “The human heart is a perpetual idol factory” meaning that we cannot help but produce (or find) things to worship.

Right off the bat in this article, you might be confused and not sold on this idea if you have a bad understanding of what worship is. So let’s fix a couple misconceptions real quick.. 

MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT WORSHIP 

1. THAT WORSHIP EXCLUSIVELY MEANS SINGING 

   - Worship is a FULL LIFE RESPONSE to the truth of God (or something else that we choose to worship). Worship is more than singing, it certainly isn’t less (because when my whole life is responding to God, I will sing) but it’s definitely MORE. It’s daily gratitude, it’s sacrificial, it’s aiming at holiness in every decision. It’s not just singing! Worship defined simply, is giving time, effort, and attention to someone or something. 

2. THAT WORSHIP IS A CHRISTIAN THING 

   - This one might be a given with the title of this article but we have to stop believing worship is just for Christians! Every human being worships, it’s just a matter of WHO or WHAT we worship. Atheists worship like I said. They just worship their pride and intellect. What we give our time, effort, and energy to (in other words that we truly value) that’s what we worship. We were designed as “image bearers” (not the image, just a reflector) and if we aren’t reflecting God’s image, we will find another image to bear. We have to fix this misconception or worship will never really make sense or change our lives.  

3. THAT WORSHIP IS FEELINGS OR PERSONALITY DRIVEN  

   - This one gets me fired up personally. And yet again, it might be tied to a false belief in the first two. But worship isn’t feelings driven. It’s the only response that makes sense when you truly see God’s character and think about what He’s done. It’s not about “feeling” the song or vibe. It’s about responding to the truth. And it’s not about being someone who “likes” music or not. It’s not about being “comfortable” to raise your hands or not. It’s a sacrifice out of praise to God.

I’m sure there are more misconceptions, but these are extremely vital to course correct if we want to properly understand what we worship and how to direct our worship to God. 

It’s interesting that when Scripture talks about praise, worship, and living a life in response to God, it becomes pretty clear that worship was never supposed to be an event, a service, a program, or something to watch, but rather that worship is a response to God that fuels every single area of our lives. That worship and praise are what we tap into and build into our lives in order to get out of bed every day and live with a purpose. 

I could go on and on and on, but I want to defer to the Apostle Paul here. I want to include a rather lengthy excerpt from him for you to ponder when it comes to the fact that everyone worships, and we need a fuller picture of what worship is and how it shows up in our day to day lives. 

“12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
 
15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
Colossians 3:12-17