THE CULTURAL BENEFITS OF WORSHIP

Worship is a vital and distinctive aspect of Christian culture that has no equivalent in secular Western culture.

When we, as Christians, worship our God, we acknowledge that He is infinitely higher and greater than us. He is the Creator, we are created beings. We freely acknowledge our moment by moment dependence on Him  - for the life that we enjoy and the very air that we breathe. We admit our smallness in comparison to His vastness and we admit our frailty in contrast to His strength and power.

This promotes an attitude of humility which, I believe, is much saner and healthier than the modern secular attitude that tries to make every individual feel “special”. If I am special, then everything should work out perfectly for me, and I should fight anything or anybody who gets in my way. If things don’t work out, I am susceptible to anger and depression because, after all, such things should never happen to me because I’m special.

In contrast, worship promotes the attitude that we don’t deserve special treatment but we can look to God for wisdom and strength in every situation. This is much better!

In some forms of Christian worship, there is also an admission of pervasive sinfulness in comparison to His holiness. As in the oft repeated phrase: “Forgive us, for we are miserable sinners.” Contrition and repentance are good things but, if we never move on from there, we will be doomed to hopelessness and futile struggling against ourselves.

The true Christian understanding of sin is that we were all sinners but, through Christ, we are declared righteous. This encourages a life of eternal gratitude which, in turn, is a better motivation to holy living. When we are born again, through faith in Christ, we enter a relationship with God based on forgiveness and grace. No longer must we strive to be accepted.

Worship also provides perspective. It places us accurately and realistically in the cosmos. We are not important because of what we are but because of who we are, beloved sons and daughters of God.

This warrants much more study but this brief summary of the benefits of worship surely demonstrates that true Christian culture promotes good emotional health and helpful attitudes to life.