The beginning of both private - personal daily worship and regular corporate (body of Christ) worship is our acknowledgement of our need of the Lord. As seen in Isaiah 6 as in many other places in scripture, we see that when we truly see God objectively, we can not help but bow before Him admitting our deep need for redemption and the living of the redeemed life in Him.
We need to agree with Him about our need for salvation in Christ Jesus with a daily giving thanks for His redeeming grace being a part of our consistent worship.
But, we make the mistake of stopping there. It must go beyond that with the realization that it is impossible for us to live out the Christ-following life apart from His resurrection power at work in us. It is only in his power and by his grace that we are able to live the days and moments of our lives. We don't live in our own power anymore than we would have salvation apart from Him. Our worship is initiated by Him and the beginning of our part of worship is responding by saying in effect, "Lord, I need you." "I am nothing without you." "I am a man of unclean lips" in great need of a Savior and Sustainer. And, praise the Lord, HE IS FAITHFUL!!! I love how Psalm 5:3 sets the table for our daily worship - "O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch." (ESV) "In the morning You hear my voice, O Lord; in the morning I prepare [a prayer, a sacrifice] for You and watch and wait [for you to speak to my heart]. (AMP) "Every morning you'll hear me at it again. Every morning I lay out the pieces of my life on your altar and watch for fire to descend." (MSG) Let's be sure we begin every day with Him. Because, that and that alone is what will ignite our worship as the Body of Christ when we gather to gather for the purpose of giving glory to Him in our worship together. mjm
