Free to Worship

Matt. 4:10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”

Col. 1:13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.

What an amazing thought – that we, just like Jesus, because of Jesus, can say to Satan and all the forces of evil in our world, away from me.  I will not live by your rules anymore.  We’ve been rescued and redeemed; we have the freedom to live out of love and our security in Christ rather than fear and a compulsion to control now.

To worship the Lord is to immerse ourselves in God’s goodness and holiness, and immersion, as we all know when learning a new language, is the best way to learn these new rules and rhythms of the kingdom of God.  As we worship – in church, in community, in our homes, in our workplaces, constant, living worship – “we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (2 Cor. 3:18) Richard Foster puts it this way: “To stand before the Holy One of eternity is to change.”

Talk with Jesus for a few minutes this morning about what it means that he has set you free from the old rules of fear and desire for control.  How does that make you feel?  What old ways feel hardest, perhaps even scariest, to give up?  What steps do you sense God asking you to take to experience more of who he is and the love he has for you?