3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
1 Peter 1:3-9 (ESV)
Moving from our understanding that Our heavenly Father knows our troubles, as they come and go, in our lives (1 Pet. 1:1-2). In 1 Peter 1:3-9, we discover that our rejoicing in the Gospel, the good news that Jesus Christ, through His death, burial, and resurrection, has redeemed us, forgiven us, saved us from the penalty of our sin. In this glorious transaction of our sin for His righteousness, we even receive an eternal heavenly inheritance.
But what about here? What about now? How does the Gospel impact our hearts and lives now? Peter calls us to rejoice in Jesus, praise Jesus, glorify Jesus, and honor Jesus because of what He has done for us. In other words, worship turns out to be so much more than our attempt to be weekend warriors in our local Church. Too often when we speak of worship we think merely of music and a LargeGroup gathering of worshippers. But Peter challenges us to know that our worship of Jesus is an everyday worship.
Remember Why…
Now, most mature Christians can conjure up a pretty solid definition of worship but I’m not necessarily convinced that our problem lies within knowing about worship, but forgetting why we worship. We too often forget that we are a people called to remember. For most of us, it isn’t that we don’t love our Savior Jesus, it’s just that the things of this world are so distracting from His truths of the Word of God.
We must always strive to remember, to recall, and to desire to be reminded of His glorious grace and our worship of Him for it. Our hearts can be revived and strengthened, by the power of the Holy Spirit, when we remember that…
God is Worthy of our Worship
The apostle Peter begins where we all must begin. He so wonderfully expresses a doxology of praise and worship to God. The word doxology comes from the Greek word doxa (doe-xa), which describes the splendor, the glory, the majesty, and the greatness of our God. Doxa, combined with the Greek word logos (low-gose), which means “word” or “speaking,” brings us to our verbal, spoken, or sung, praise, worship, and adoration of God.
Peter proclaims that, “God is one to be praised!”
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ…”
We must begin here. We must begin our focus on God, the God of the Bible, Creator of everything, all-powerful, all-knowing, and ever-present. The truths that provoke our adoration of God her in 1 Peter are, His mercy. What a beautiful truth that God didn’t have to save, but wanted to save us. The fact that we are born again. The fact that we have a precious eternal hope, a living hope, and that our inheritance is immeasurable. He alone is worthy of our worship and it will take all of eternity realizing that.
Set your hearts to the worthiness of worship that God alone desires and deserves. Do you only worship Him on Sundays? Fill your everyday experiences with the everyday worship of our gracious, wonderful Lord and discover the joy that will fill our hearts and lives, no matter the valleys that may come and go.
