The Person

Then God said to Noah, “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.” So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds—everything that moves on land—came out of the ark, one kind after another. Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. (Genesis 8:15-20)
 
“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”  (John 4:21-24)
 
‘My mouth is filled with your praise, and with your glory all the day.’  (Psalm 71:8)
Noah isn’t often remembered as a worshipper. First and foremost, he’s usually remembered for his boat-building and his carpentry skills. But the account of Noah’s exploits in Genesis 6-8 culminates in a great moment when Noah downs tools, gets on his knees and worships. This is meant to show us how important our worship is to the Lord. More than anything that we can do for God, he wants his people to be true worshippers.

If you’re reading this today, you need to know something: God wants your heart, today.

No doubt, the next twenty-four hours of your life will be filled with opportunities to be distracted and side-tracked from worshipping the Lord. But, as Spirit-filled followers of Jesus, those hours will also be filled with wonderful opportunities to ‘taste and see’ that the Lord is good and worthy to be praised (Psalm 34:8). We can derive our sense of identity and self-worth from all kinds of things – what we do for work, where we live, the colour of our skin, our relationship status. But far above those elements is the truth that we are beloved sons and daughters of the Almighty Heavenly Father – first and foremost, what we are is worshippers of the Living God!

Worship isn’t a type of song you sing. Worship is a posture of the heart. Noah went through the toughest of trials, but what was the first thing he did when he emerged? He worshipped God. It was ingrained deeply into his very sense of identity. When everything else was swept away from Noah, he remained a worshipper.
1)Is worship something that we sing, or do you agree that being a ‘worshipper’ is fundamentally something that we are?
2)Is your worship about what you can bring to God or about what you can get from God? Hint: if you’re prone to think. ‘I didn’t get much out of that time of worship’, then God is trying to challenge you today!
3)Look at your schedule for today and for this week. How can you make regular moments to speak your worship to the Lord? How can you follow that up all week long, through the way in which you conduct yourself during your scheduled tasks and interactions?
Father God, I thank you that being a worshipper is who I am. It’s not something that you will let me keep reserved for 30 minutes on a Sunday. Lord if there is anything in my life at the moment that hinders my worship or blocks my affections for you, then please reveal it to me? Please bring conviction that leads to change. May my thoughts, words and deeds be a non-stop act of worship to you. I give you my heart again today. Amen.
If you have time, consider carrying on your conversation with God using one of our helpful Prayer Pathways.
Today’s Everyday Devotions have also inspired a devotional video that you can watch on our YouTube channel.
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