What Do We Worship?

You become like what you worship.

N. T. Wright

When I was a child, we sang a classic hymn in church with these words: 

          Praise to the Lord, the almighty, the King of creation

          O my soul praise him, for he is thy health and salvation

          All ye who hear, now to his temple draw near, join me in glad adoration.

I imagine many of us have enthusiastically sung these words – or others like them –proclaiming our worship of God. This hymn rightly claims that we should praise and honor the God of creation. He should be the object of our reverence. Why? Because we become like what – or who – we worship.

The challenge, of course, is not to simply sing these words, but to live them out. It’s what we do that actually reveals what we value and love. It’s the clearest sign of what we actually worship.

For example, do we seek our value through our career, or approval and acceptance from others, or material success, or simply from pleasure? Consider how you and I might fill in the blanks to questions like these:

I would be completely happy if only __________.

I don’t care how my spouse feels about it, I will __________. 

All is want is __________.

Don’t ask me to give up __________.

I wonder what our responses say about our worship. 

If we’re filling in the blanks with anything that does not draw us closer to Jesus and his kingdom, then we’re probably engaging in what God calls “idolatry”. None of us likes to admit that we think or act this way, but here’s the truth:

Anytime we gain our value from the world and others,

or elevate our desires into demands,

or are quick to punish someone else when we are denied,

we are worshipping an idol.

An idol is anything that rules our feelings, thoughts and actions, or causes us to defend our viewpoint or acquisition, whatever the cost. Even the cost of our devotion to God. 

In Tolkien’s story “The Lord of the Rings”, the character Gollum has become consumed by his possession of a ring with super-powers. The longer he owns it, the more it sucks life out of him, making him a shadow of his former self. When it is taken, Gollum says to himself, “We wants it, we needs it. Must have the precious. They stole it from us. Sneaky little hobbitses. Wicked, tricksy, false!” 

Gollum’s treasure, his idol, had taken over his life. It has consumed him.

This process of becoming like what you worship happened over a long period of time for Gollum. In a similar fashion, we can be drawn into the worship of something other than Jesus, a little at a time. At first, we may just want a little more money for security, or a newer car for comfort, or we may even join a cause to make a difference.

However, our devotion to any of these things can become a demand. Something we must have. We think about it constantly and strive to attain it. It permeates our choices and makes us defenders of what is so precious to us. Whatever it is, it becomes the object of our worship.

And over time, we become like what we worship. So we become greedy, or materialistic, or self-righteous...and our idol slowly leads us further and further from God. 

Are you being lured by any false idols? If so, let me pray for you as you begin your day.

Dear Jesus, I pray that you will gently reveal any areas where we worship idols, where our demands of other things shadow our devotion to you and may sacrifice someone else on the altar of our idol. Help us to be more willing to lay down our own desires for security and significance, so we can become like what we worship: you and only you. In your name, Amen. 

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