Matthew 6:5 (NASB)
5 “When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.

You can always tell when someone is religious…but you can’t always tell when someone is a Christian.
                                 – A recent quote by Steve Brown

Jesus gave us a couple of examples in Matthew 6 of the religious people. He said of all of them that they had already received their reward in this life.

I like Steve Brown. He enjoys shocking people with his writing, but it is always done in an attempt to get you to think. He lets you know how he struggles with the same things we do, but he is quick to remind us that even through it all, if we are His, He loves us.

This got me to thinking about worship and what it is. I’m not sure many people really think about what real worship is. I know I didn’t for a long, long time. It’s a shame, because if we don’t worship God the way He wants us to worship Him, we’ve really missed the entire point of it all.

As I was thinking about worship, this thought came to mind… If I don’t worship God all during the week, then I probably am not truly worshiping Him on Sunday. True worship involves feasting and meditating on His word, getting to know Him through prayer, singing to Him with all our love, adoration, praise and reverence, and allowing the Holy Spirit to have His way with us. Sunday worship can be all of that, if we come to it with the right preparation. But that means we have to worship Him each and every day, all day long.

As I reflected on Jesus and His disciples, He gave them a beautiful example of how they should live when He was here on earth, but they couldn’t (and we can’t either) do that by imitating Jesus. Imitation, if you are good at it, leads to pride. And pride is then your only reward as far as Jesus is concerned. If you imitate, then you are just being religious. Only when Jesus left and sent the Holy Spirit were the disciples able to truly conform to Christ. They had to stop trying to imitate and let Jesus change them from the inside out.

I guess that is the true essence of worship and probably the point God is trying to make with all of us.

Jesus, help me through your Holy Spirit to worship you well every day. Let me not be an imitator or a religious person, but your new creation in Christ. Amen.

Always praying for the glory of God,