Truly Worshiping God Means Truly Trusting Him

Tuesday’s section of this week’s lesson asks,

“How can we make sure we aren’t involved in any false worship?”

Image © Lars Justinen from GoodSalt.com

It seems the question between true worship and false worship boils down to who we really trust. For example, the children of Israel turned to Aaron’s golden calf when they didn’t trust Moses to return. Saul trusted his own sacrifices when he didn’t trust Samuel to show up. When David numbered his army it showed he trusted in numbers more than God. So, how can we make sure we aren’t involved in any false worship now? One way is by relying upon God now instead of or own works or inventions.

Do I return an honest tithe, or withhold some or all to put bread on my family’s table, instead of trusting Jesus to put bread on my family’s table?

If I return an honest tithe than I am truly worshiping Jesus. If I withhold tithe to provide for myself, I am trusting my money instead of Jesus. I am worshiping money which has become my false god. Notice I am not worshiping it necessarily because I love money more, but simply because I trust money more than I trust God.

Do I work on the Sabbath because my family needs the money, or do I rest from my works on the Sabbath and put my trust in God to provide?

Same issue as tithe, right? It all comes down to trust. What makes us think we will be true to God’s Sabbath when the mark of the beast becomes an issue, when we are not even keeping it during times of peace and prosperity? If I think my job is going to save me, I am worshiping my job, which is false worship. By resting from my works on Sabbath, I am trusting God and thus truly worshiping Him.

While taking a test, do I cheat to make sure I pass, or do I trust Jesus to work things out for me, even if I fail?

Even if we fail a test or even have to take a class over, God can work all that out for our own good. We truly worship God in school only as we truly trust Him in school.

When I make a mistake do I try to lie my way out, or do I tell the truth and trust Jesus to save me?

Revelation 21:8 says all liars will be in the lake of fire. We can’t say we trust Jesus while trusting our lies to save us. When we lie we worship our lies instead of worshiping Jesus.

False systems of worship seem to come from not trusting what God has already set in place. When we learn to trust Jesus we won’t need counterfeit systems of worship.

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I raise the following thoughts as an affirmation and extension of what has been presented in this post and comments.

William raises well the link (or natural-'law' relationship) between worship and trust - we worship (ie, ascribe worth/value to) that which we trust the most. If it is not God we trust the most, then we will worship the next thing 'down the line' that we value instead. This will unfortunately be a 'false' worship in that we are worshiping something that is incapable of meeting our deepest need/s.

And Robert builds upon this by adding awareness that there are factors that can affect our trust in God when he states that "don't we tend to distrust those we haven't come to know very well?"

I know of many, many people (both Christians and non-Christians) who do not trust God - or rather who do not trust the God that has been portrayed to them. On the one hand are the obvious misportrayals of God that people have encountered that, for example, lead them to view bad things as 'acts of God'. On the other hand are the much more subtle misportrayals of God that exist within - and are even perpetuated by - Christianity that lead people to fear God in a negative way: even though they keep these fears silent from other people.

While this may not lead to out and out false worship, it most certainly contaminates the worship that is able to be experience by the person concerned. This is a much more subtle expression of the issue of worship - but is just as detrimental in its impacts.

Ellen White has very clearly unmasked how Satan has tirelessly sought to interrupt healthy/true worship of God. If you read each sentence carefully, you begin to get an insight into the significance and extent of what is going on and its significance for the time in which we are living:

"From the beginning it has been Satan’s studied plan to cause men to forget God, that he might secure them to himself. Hence he has sought to misrepresent the character of God, to lead men to cherish a false conception of Him. The Creator has been presented to their minds as clothed with the attributes of the prince of evil himself — as arbitrary, severe, and unforgiving — that He might be feared, shunned, and even hated by men. Satan hoped to so confuse the minds of those whom he had deceived that they would put God out of their knowledge. Then he would obliterate the divine image in man and impress his own likeness upon the soul; he would imbue men with his own spirit and make them captives according to his will. {5 Testimonies to the Church, page 738.1}

Just before us is the closing struggle of the great controversy when, with “all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness,” Satan is to work to misrepresent the character of God, that he may “seduce, if it were possible, even the elect.” If there was ever a people in need of constantly increasing light from heaven, it is the people that, in this time of peril, God has called to be the depositaries of His holy law and to vindicate His character before the world. Those to whom has been committed a trust so sacred must be spiritualized, elevated, vitalized, by the truths they profess to believe. Never did the church more sorely need, and never was God more solicitous that she should enjoy, the experience described in Paul’s letter to the Colossians when he wrote: We “do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.” {5 Testimonies to the Church, page 746.1}"

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Comments

Truly Worshiping God Means Truly Trusting Him — 3 Comments

Dj bekker on June 8, 2018 at 6:20 pm said:

If we tell lies then we have Satan as our father and that is a bad situation.

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Robert Whiteman on June 9, 2018 at 4:12 am said:

I would like to suggest that all examples of false worship are centered around worship of self. We depend on OUR judgment, OUR ability, OUR knowledge and decisions, instead of the exceeding great and precious promises of God, the revelation of His will, and His Holy(and Perfect) Law.

When building the tower after the flood, the people depended on their own reasoning instead of God's promises. The Tower was the result when SELF took the place of God and worked to find a means to bring peace of mind to those who feared because they did not trust God. In 2 Thessalonians, Paul writes that the man of sin places HIMSELF on the throne of God, or, in the place where only God is sufficient to rule with wisdom. So when we trust OUR reasoning instead, self has been placed where only God should be enthroned; in our heart, where all worship originates. The tower, the calf, the fig leaves, the lies, Sabbath-breaking....just the results of us placing our own reasoning as foremost in our heart, and thus upon the true "throne" where only God can dwell in perfect righteousness.

Does this make sense?

The struggle for supremacy in worship is not between God and other things, but between God and ME. Just like Lucifer who said "I will....", or that man of sin(2 Thess 2) who places "himself" in God's place.

Yes, it's due to unbelief(lack of trust) toward God. Don't we tend to distrust those we haven't come to know very well?

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Phil van der Klift on June 9, 2018 at 5:55 pm said:

I raise the following thoughts as an affirmation and extension of what has been presented in this post and comments.

William raises well the link (or natural-'law' relationship) between worship and trust - we worship (ie, ascribe worth/value to) that which we trust the most. If it is not God we trust the most, then we will worship the next thing 'down the line' that we value instead. This will unfortunately be a 'false' worship in that we are worshiping something that is incapable of meeting our deepest need/s.

And Robert builds upon this by adding awareness that there are factors that can affect our trust in God when he states that "don't we tend to distrust those we haven't come to know very well?"

I know of many, many people (both Christians and non-Christians) who do not trust God - or rather who do not trust the God that has been portrayed to them. On the one hand are the obvious misportrayals of God that people have encountered that, for example, lead them to view bad things as 'acts of God'. On the other hand are the much more subtle misportrayals of God that exist within - and are even perpetuated by - Christianity that lead people to fear God in a negative way: even though they keep these fears silent from other people.

While this may not lead to out and out false worship, it most certainly contaminates the worship that is able to be experience by the person concerned. This is a much more subtle expression of the issue of worship - but is just as detrimental in its impacts.

Ellen White has very clearly unmasked how Satan has tirelessly sought to interrupt healthy/true worship of God. If you read each sentence carefully, you begin to get an insight into the significance and extent of what is going on and its significance for the time in which we are living:

"From the beginning it has been Satan’s studied plan to cause men to forget God, that he might secure them to himself. Hence he has sought to misrepresent the character of God, to lead men to cherish a false conception of Him. The Creator has been presented to their minds as clothed with the attributes of the prince of evil himself — as arbitrary, severe, and unforgiving — that He might be feared, shunned, and even hated by men. Satan hoped to so confuse the minds of those whom he had deceived that they would put God out of their knowledge. Then he would obliterate the divine image in man and impress his own likeness upon the soul; he would imbue men with his own spirit and make them captives according to his will. {5 Testimonies to the Church, page 738.1}

Just before us is the closing struggle of the great controversy when, with “all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness,” Satan is to work to misrepresent the character of God, that he may “seduce, if it were possible, even the elect.” If there was ever a people in need of constantly increasing light from heaven, it is the people that, in this time of peril, God has called to be the depositaries of His holy law and to vindicate His character before the world. Those to whom has been committed a trust so sacred must be spiritualized, elevated, vitalized, by the truths they profess to believe. Never did the church more sorely need, and never was God more solicitous that she should enjoy, the experience described in Paul’s letter to the Colossians when he wrote: We “do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.” {5 Testimonies to the Church, page 746.1}"

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Truly Worshiping God Means Truly Trusting Him

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Truly Worshiping God Means Truly Trusting Him — 3 Comments

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