Have you ever thought . . . I don't know what gift to give that person; they have everything. Well, what gift do we give God? What can we give God that He doesn't already have? In a word: worship. It is the one thing we can do to express our love to God.
Loving God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength can be expressed in most anything we do that serves Christ and the kingdom of God. It is not just what we do on Sunday morning. It includes all and everything about our lives. It includes both the simple and ordinary and the extravagant. True authentic worship includes so much more than singing, programs, musical styles, or different kinds of worship expression. This great commandment is something that goes far beyond these other things. It is an intimate dialogue and two way relationship. Put most simply, it is revelation and response. God reveals Himself to us and we respond to Him in love and obedience to all He has revealed to us. As said before, worship does not begin with us, but the source of worship is divine initiative. It has to do with a divine encounter in which God loves us and we love Him with everything that we are.
This moves us beyond just what we know as worship services into a complete holistic encounter with God that engages every aspect of our human experience. It includes everything we do in our weekly gatherings as the body and in our own private worship, both of which overflow into everything we do and become during the six days of the week of living.
Unfortunately in our day, people are more interested in seeking a particular experience rather than actually seeking God. Authentic, Biblical worship calls us to focus on giving to God rather than getting from God. The beautiful paradox is that while we seek to genuinely give to God in worship, we become recipients of all that God is in that two-way encounter with the living, holy, God.
