Stop Worshiping Yourself

“Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!” (Psalm 100:1-2)

You are wired to worship! Did you know this? Deep down inside, you have a longing and desire to worship that works itself to the very forefront of your life on a daily basis. Mostly you worship yourself. Oh, so now I have your attention. You didn’t like it when I said you worship yourself, did you? That would make you a hedonist, right? Well, its true. The sooner you understand this point the better. You worship yourself daily it is a constant battle to overcome.

Think about it. You spend an exorbitant amount of money each year on yourself every year. Now I not talking about the basic needs, but the superfluous spending. You treat yourself to delights all the time, because its fun. You enjoy yourself all the time, because “dog gone it I deserve it!” You stand in lines to be entertained, to be pampered, to be loved, or so you think.

In our culture we have given self-worship a new and acceptable term, we call it self-esteem. We tell people to love themselves, to develop a positive self-image and life will be good. You may as well tell them to go bow down to Dagon (the god of the Philistines) so they will feel better about themselves. It just will not work!

You see, Solomon tells us that God has “set eternity in our heart!” It is the sense the we “were made for something more!” It is the longing for something bigger, that there is more to life then meets the eye. This is the longing we have to worship our Creator!

Only when we slow down, take our eyes off of ourselves and look to Jesus do we begin to find true enjoyment of God. When we realize that the Creator wrapped Himself in human flesh and lived amongst us, lived a perfect life and paid the ultimate price for us, we will want to shout for joy! He promises to be with us! He doesn’t promise us a life of ease and comfort, but He says no matter what He will be with us. He will never leave or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). This should cause us to long to worship Him!

When we see that He will forgive us and make us right with Him we will enjoy His presence all the more. When we realize that when we believe in Jesus Christ, we are adopted into His forever family and we can stand in His presence with confidence.

When we focus on the words of the songs and see that God is who He says He is and that He will do what He promised He will do, then we sing praises to His great Name! This is what we are made to do! This is what brings true joy and satisfaction! So stop worshiping yourself today, look to Jesus and praise His name!