June 13, 2010

Worthy Art Thou

“You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created” (Revelation 4:11).

Our great God is worthy to receive glory and honor and power. It is inherent in the nature of the creature-Creator relationship that the Creator is to be worshiped. But it so happens that the God who created us and whom we have the privilege of worshiping is worthy of our reverence. And not only our reverence, God is worthy of our love.

When all has been said and done, God’s worthiness must be our ultimate reason for relating to God properly. Apart from any consideration of personal gain or loss, God is worthy to be worshiped and loved . . . just because of the love that God has had for us as our God. We must aspire to love God as God has loved us, whatever that may require.

Is it now time for us to rise above the relatively small concerns that we usually attach to our worship of God? Vast realms of awe and adoration await us in God if we will but seek God for God’s own sake.

Each of us is important because each of us has been created by God. But each of us is also a part of the much larger web of reality that God has brought into being. We will reach the pinnacle of our own glory as creatures when we shed our self-importance and independence and begin humbly relating ourselves to the Creator and to God’s creation which surrounds us.

What life is about is not getting God and God’s world to do what we want and to give us what we wish. It is about properly giving ourselves to God and God’s world so that our relationship to God and to it is based on truth, whether we are remunerated for that giving or not. If we count on God to do what is right whether or not it pays God to do so, then God must be able to count on us to have a similar regard for what is right. Now is the time for us to erase the fine print from our contract with God and enter into a loving relationship that is hale and hearty. It is not God’s gifts that we seek. It is simply to give ourselves back to the Giver.

“My God, I love you; not because I hope for heaven thereby, Nor yet because who love you not are lost eternally.

Not with the hope of gaining anything, nor seeking a reward; But as you have loved me, O ever-loving Lord!

Even so I love you, and will love, and in your praise will sing, Solely because you are my God, and my eternal King” (Anonymous 17th Century Prayer).