Worship Isn't Just About Flattering God

Does the saying "Imitation is the sincerest
form of flattery" have anything to do with
why we need to worship?

"(God)... creates each of us in Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does..."

Ephesians 2:10 The Message

To the average unbeliever, spending time in prayer, meditation or praise is a pointless waste of time. Why should a deity require adoration? Does God need to be placated and ingratiated in order for us to merit God's protection and blessing? 

Or is worship primarily designed for another reason altogether?

Left to ourselves, we become highly focused on the here and now, and on whatever meets our immediate needs.

But when our attention becomes wholly focused on the eternal God of the universe, we are able to better see things from a full picture perspective, and to see our time here as a timeless God sees it, from distant past to far off future.

As humans, we tend to take on the qualities of the God (or gods) we worship. If we are devoted to the god Mammon (Money), we take on the qualities of greed and of acquisition at whatever cost. Or in the case of the god Eros ('desire', the Greek version of Cupid), we become all about possessing and ravishing the objects of our passion. 

But if we practice being in a state of intense devotion to the loving and compassionate God described in scripture--the God known through the prophets and through Jesus--we who are made in God's image begin to reflect more and more of the qualities of our Creator and Redeemer.

As in the example of the praise psalm in the image above, we thus begin to join God in pouring out benefits and blessings to others, being lavish in our forgiveness of those who do wrong and repent of it, devoting ourselves to the healing of diseases and rescuing people from destruction, and to seeing all of God's creatures, especially our fellow human ones, as deserving of our compassion, kindness and mercy.

In other words, we reflect and imitate the gracious qualities of God in the way we celebrate and care for all of God's creation. We begin to reflect God's mind, take on God's work.

Sometimes believers have been accused of "being so heavenly minded that they're no earthly good." But for me, the greater danger is to be so thoroughly earthly minded that we are of no earthly good--or we even end up doing more harm than good.