The Priority of Jesus’ Worship
We live in a day and age where being busy is the norm. In one sense, this might be a good thing - after all, the devil finds work for idle hands, doesn’t he? But on the other hand, this might be a bad thing - if the devil can keep us too busy for God, then he has us just where he wants us.
Jesus was a busy man too. He was so busy, in fact, that He could well have spent all of His time doing the work of God without ever worshipping God. This is a great danger for many Christians today - tirelessly working on church activities, without ever taking the time to truly worship!
The Priority of Worship in Our Lives
But notice how Jesus didn’t make that mistake. Instead, He made worship a priority. He awoke early in the morning before everybody else was up and found a quiet place to pray. As Constance Cherry says “It’s impossible to speak of His ministry apart from Jesus the worshipper. When we discover just how much worship meant to Him, everything else He did takes on new meaning. Worship was very important to Jesus. In fact, it was His priority.”
What are your priorities in life? Where does worship fit in? Does the thought of a day without worship make you recoil? It should.
Again, let us note that such worship might be public or private. It’s easy, in today’s world, to choose not to attend church. There are so many other things we could be doing on a Sunday! And besides, we can always ‘catch up’ by watching the sermon on YouTube later. While this can be useful, we must be honest with ourselves: are we giving public worship the high priority we should?
It's easy too to skip our private worship time. When the day begins, we want to get going and get productive. When the day ends, we want to relax at the TV or get into bed and sleep. During the day, of course, we have no time to stop.
Prioritizing Worship: Following the Example of Jesus
Before we know it, worship is not part of our day or even our week. How can we fix this? Bill Hybels once said that he always made time for the things he valued. I’ve discovered that this is true in my own life - if I want something enough, I will make the time for it. Shouldn’t it be times of worship that we prioritise highly? Shouldn’t we rearrange our schedules so that worship flows from our hearts to God daily, and weekly?
If you want to be like Jesus, and live your life like He did, prioritize worship. Like Him, schedule time into your daily routine - non-negotiable time - to spend in intimate communion with your Father, in public and private. Though a thousand other things fight for your attention, give highest priority to the One you value most - even if it means getting up while it’s still dark to pour out your heart in praise.
