Worship Should Come Naturally
When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. 11 After coming into the house they saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell to the ground and worshiped Him. Then, opening their treasures, they presented to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. (Matt. 2:10-11)
As I sit here this morning and ponder these verses what I see is a reaction to the Child that seems natural. These Magi understood who this Babe was. They knew from divine OT prophetic revelation that this was the Messiah. They knew whose presence they were in even if it be just a babe. This was The King, The Deliverer, The One who has come to set people free! And their reaction to Him was one of falling to the ground and worshipping, and then giving gifts.
I want to encourage all of us to get a fresh understanding of who Jesus Christ is in our lives. We need to always understand that He is the One who came to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10) of whom I was one and you were as well. But we must determine in our hearts to react to that understanding properly. With this kind of understanding–the truth of knowing that Jesus Christ has brought salvation to our lives–worship should come naturally! It came naturally to the Magi and Jesus had yet to die on the cross and rise again. But they knew even with only pieces of the prophetic picture. For us, we know all of it. We have the truth of the New Testament painting the full picture for us of His birth, death, burial, and resurrection.
But with this knowledge are we worshipping Him the way we should? Has this all become just a bit “common” to us now that we have been in the relationship for a few years now? God forbid it should ever get that way within our hearts. We should always, all year long, have within our hearts, the attitude of all-out worship for our Savior, God and King! When was the last time we fell on the ground and worshipped Him? It’s going to happen when you see Him in glory, so why should we wait until then. We have Him with us right now. We have Him blessing us with provision, peace, hope, joy, and strength right now, every day, and even today! Hey, maybe it’s a bit intimidating for you to do it in church with all those people there, but what about in your room at home? What about when we get by ourselves sometime this week? What if we just took a moment to ponder the awesomeness of our Jesus and dropped down to our knees and worshipped Him with an all–out grateful heart that releases all the love and praise that He deserves. How about it? After all, if He is to us who we say He is, then it should come naturally!
And about the gifts they gave Him–let’s give Him the gift of our total obedience. Let’s give Him the gift of living our lives passionately for Him. Let’s give Him the gift of all of us, not just 90% but all 100% of us! I really believe that if we do what should come naturally to us starting this week, not only we will we have an incredible day and week, but our entire 2010 and will be more amazing than we could ever imagine.
