Worship: Practice for Eternity

The following devotional is by Skip Heitzig, founder and senior pastor of Calvary of Albuquerque. This devotional can be found in the Faithlife Study Bible, along with devotionals and articles from more than 40 contributors.

There are many activities we do in this life as Christians that we won’t do in heaven. We will never evangelize anyone in heaven. We will never share the gospel or hand out a tract. We will not pray for needs in heaven—there will be no reason to.
However, there is one activity we will continue to do in heaven: worship. We will worship God forever. Given this, we can look at worship in this life as a kind of “practice” for eternity.

The English word “worship” means “to ascribe worth to something.” We worship God for who He is and because He is worthy. Revelation 4:8 expresses this in the refrain: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” (NKJV).

Yet we worship God not only for His character, but also for His conduct—not only for His attributes, but also for His actions: “You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created” (Rev 4:11 NKJV). God is worthy of worship because He did what no one else could ever do: He created all things, and He continues to sustain them.
But more than that, He also redeemed us through His Son, Jesus Christ. Revelation 5:9 expresses this truth: “You are worthy . . . for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood” (NKJV). That’s what God did for us, and He deserves never-ending praise and worship because of it.

Worship involves the physical and emotional aspects of human personhood, which often finds expression though music and song. But fundamentally, worship is an acknowledgment of who God is and what He has done. Incorporating our bodily and emotional responses, worship is also an intelligent expression that involves the mind. Jesus said we should love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30). This means our worship should fully engage everything within us as we dwell on the greatness of God.

There is never a time or a situation in which we cannot worship God. There is no valley, no depth, no darkness where God is not worthy of all praise and all glory. Read the stories of Job while he suffered, or David while he was on the run from Saul, or Paul while he was in prison. You’ll see that praise is sometimes sweetest and most genuine in those dark times. We should follow those examples.
God is worthy to be praised! As the psalmist wrote, “Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. For He is our God” (Psa 95:6–7).

Check out books and sermons by Skip Heitzig for more of his unique insights.

Download the Faithlife Study Bible for free to get more devotionals like this!

Share
Written by
Ryan Nelson

Ryan Nelson is a writer for OverviewBible, where he uses Logos to explore the characters, groups, places, and books of the Bible. He has served in a variety of volunteer ministry positions, primarily through Young Life.

View all articles

Your email address has been added

Written by Ryan Nelson
All Deals Live: Save up to 60% on March Matchups commentaries and more.
This is default text for notification bar