Another frequent question about the faith concerns our time spent in worshiping God.  Football is America's favorite spectator sport.  An English visitor described the game as 22 men in desperate need of rest, being watched by 70,000 people in desperate need of exercise.  And the math only gets worse.  The NFL estimates that 100 million people watch by television some part of a football game on any given Sunday.  Given that 1,643 people make NFL rosters each year, that's a ratio of 60,864 fans per player.  Watching every mistake, every penalty.  Every fan sure he or she could do it better.

We can afford to be spectators in some areas of our lives.  But not with our souls.  You and I will each stand personally before the God of the universe one day, to give account for the years he gave us to live.  Here will be his first question: did you "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" (Matthew 22:37)?  Did you worship your Maker?  We need to know what worship is, what it isn't, and why it matters so much to our God and to our souls.

Let's begin with what worship is, as God sees it.  It's not what our culture thinks it is, or even what many church attenders think it is.  God defines worship as "love": "Love the Lord your God."  Love is a verb, not a noun or an adjective here.  It requires doing, not just attending, watching, or believing.  You haven't worshipped by attending church, listening to a sermon, singing hymns, or giving money.  You've only worshipped when you've loved, adored, and honored.  Worship is love.

Worship is loving God: "Love the Lord your God."  Worship is about God, not us.  It's not about what we "get" from the hour, but what we give to God.  You are not the audience, and staff members are not the performers.  Our job is to help you do your job, to be worship "coaches," to lead you to love God.

And worship is loving God in every way a human can love.

• With all our "hearts."  The word refers to our emotions, our senses.  Worship involves an intuitive expression of love for God.
• With all our "souls."  The word means the life force itself, that which gives our bodies life, our very essence.  Not as a peripheral matter but as your highest purpose and value today.  Worship involves a passionate love for God.
• With all our "minds."  We are to have no ungodly thoughts, or songs, or movies, or television shows, or books in our minds.  We are to think about our faith, to study God's word, to engage intellectually in the worship of God.
• Mark's version adds that we are to love God with all our "strength" (Mark 12:30).  This means to love God with our actions, when the worship hour is done.  God is looking for Monday Christians, Monday worshippers, Monday disciples.

 Did you know that you can love God in the same way you love anyone else who matters to you?  You can spend the day with him—talking with him, thinking about him.  Tell him how you feel, what you're thinking.  Thank him for the good things you experience, for "every good and perfect gift is from above" (James 1:17).  Ask him for what you need, and praise him for what he gives.  Spend the day with Jesus.  Love him.  Worship him.  This is his first commandment, his first expectation, for every day.

Monday: What worship is not.

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