Worship

Everyone worships.

Everyone, all the time, is continually worshiping - giving themselves away to, identifying themselves in the light of, or giving the glory to someone or something.

Even those that do not know Christ are worshipers. They are living for something - significant other, sex, money, Grade Point Average, work, music, sports, etc.

True worship = Living for the glory of God the Creator.
Idolatry = Living for the glory of Creation.

We, all people, were created to worship God and enjoy creation. Not the opposite. When the opposite occurs, we find ourselves in idolatry. And sadly, at some time or another, we all find ourselves in a situation in which we are worshiping something other than God.

The tough thing is that most of the time we aren't worshiping things that are bad. In fact, we oftentimes find ourselves worshiping things that are good. But what happens is this:

We take a good thing, we make it a God-thing, and that is a bad thing.

For example, a single man can be looking for a wife - that is a good desire. Proverbs 18:22 says "He who finds a wife finds what is good..." But if he deifies (makes a god of) a bride, then singleness is his hell. Marriage is his heaven. And a woman is his savior.

Another example - A woman can yearn to be a mother (good thing). But when that yearning turns into her main motivation and driving force in life that good thing slowly becomes a God-thing, and that is a bad thing. Being motherless becomes her hell. Having a child delivers her into her heavenly kingdom of motherhood. And that child becomes her savior.

Idols give false identity. They try and define who we are and we allow that to happen. There are those that have idolized position in the church, position in the workplace, a husband or wife, or even worship itself. People find their identity in these things and when these things fall apart so does the person. And we oftentimes don't notice we worship these things until they are taken away.

We have got to direct our worship back to the Creator. When we start to see ourselves slipping into worship of creation we must immediately make some changes. If we fail to do this, we become like the rest of mankind that Paul talks about here:

Romans 1:25 - "They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised."

We are all worshipers. What is it that you are worshiping?