Shortly after Phil and I were married, back in the early 80’s, I attended a women’s Bible study group at my church called the “Ladies Aid Society.” What a name! Who wouldn’t want to be part of a group called that?? But even though the name is odd and doesn’t even sound like a Bible study at all, it happened to be a very close-knit, multi-generational group of women that included some of my best friends, a sister, my mom, an aunt and cousin, women who had been my Calvinette leaders and Sunday School teachers, and the moms of my friends. It was family in every sense of the word.

During that time, we studied a book by Lynne Hybels called, The Joy of Personal Worship, that really helped to form my views on worship. Having been a church-goer all my life, I had grown up participating in worship services. But when we studied this book, I began to look at worship in a different way.

Worship means “to attribute worth” to something or someone. For us, the object of our worship is God, and the act of worship is telling God and living out that declaration of His worthiness. Hybels says, “It is an active, directed, conscious, meaningful celebration of who God is.”

How does that happen? It means that in our times alone with God, we focus on His attributes. It means we live with an attitude of praise and thanksgiving. It means we commit ourselves to faithful obedience. It means we confess our sins and failures. It means that even the way we treat one another can be an active expression of worship.

By taking time to personally worship God, not just corporately worshiping Him, we live in a “constant awareness of God’s love and wisdom and power and majesty!” And by consciously choosing to worship God in the minute details of daily life, we open ourselves to a new kind of joy. Not a passing happiness, but the deep, abiding JOY that permeates our souls because we are pouring out our adoration on the only One who deserves it.

Psalm 16: 11 says, “You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.”

Can you find time today to worship this God of Love? Can you immerse yourself in His Goodness? Can you find peace in His Faithfulness and Mercy? Can you adore Him for His Wisdom and Sovereignty? If you do, you will find JOY, and your life will be a living sacrifice of praise!

-Trudy