Worship God – November 25, 2022

I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I had heard and seen them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who had been showing them to me. But he said to me, “Don’t do that . . . Worship God!”
Revelation 22:8,9

Worship God

As a little boy, Brian grew up in the heart of the United States. By the time he was in his late teens, he had joined the Army. As a commander, he saw the world: Europe, the Middle East, etc. Pick a spot on the map, and he had been there. But now, after a career of one transition after another, where did he retire? Raising chickens on his great-great-grandparents’ homestead in the middle of Kansas. You could hear the satisfaction in his voice as he told his full-circle story.

There’s something satisfying about seeing things come full circle. And there’s no better full-circle story than God’s. On the first page of the Bible, we see him create a perfect world, part of which included a tree and a law, “Don’t eat!” so that humans had an opportunity to worship. When God wiped the world clean and basically started over with Noah and his family, what did they do as soon as they set foot on the freshly washed earth? They worshiped. When God rescued his people from slavery and made a covenant with them, “Only worship God” was at the top of the list. When Jesus stepped into public ministry, and Satan tried to trip him up? What did Jesus say? “Worship the Lord your God and serve him only!” (Luke 4:8).

Now here we are on the last page of the Bible. A messenger brings good news to the apostle John. And out of impulse, John falls at his feet. But what does the angel tell John? “Worship God!” Why? There is only one God who created a perfect world and forged a relationship with us. There is only one God who was willing to sacrifice his Son to save us from our sins. There is only one God who will create a new world to cement our perfect relationship with him forever. Simply put, there is only one God worth worshiping.

Prayer:
Triune God, lead me to worship you and you alone. Amen.