Living Free This Advent: Worship Fully
Last week I introduced the idea of an “Advent Conspiracy” (www.adventconspiracy.org), which is simply a movement to rethink how we do Christmas. It’s a mentality to approach the holiday season focused on this truth: In Jesus Christ, we’ve been given our greatest gift to meet our greatest need.
Understanding this should lead to a holiday season of love, rest, peace, gratitude, humility, generosity, obedience, play and more. But to experience this, we’ll need to conspire against the cultural pressures and temptations that we often feel in December. How? By worshiping fully, spending less, giving more, loving all, and finally, receiving freely.
Today let’s focus on the idea of worshiping fully. We worship fully when we worship God with all that we are and all that we have. Worship reflects what is going on in our hearts. The easiest way to evaluate what we desire at a heart level is to take an honest look at how we spend our time, energy, and money because doing so will indicate what matters most to us.
Does the way you spend your time, energy, and money reflect a heart of worship toward God?
I remember being stuck in traffic one Saturday in December many years ago. I was shopping for my wife, Stacy, and failing miserably. Even though I had a passenger seat full of stuff, I was pretty sure she didn’t need or even want any of it (don’t worry, it wasn’t a vacuum cleaner or blender or anything like that!). I had wasted my time, energy, and money, and I found my heart far from worshipful. Instead, I was distracted and discouraged. I knew something wasn’t right.
Perhaps you can relate. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Nearly every character that encountered the infant King in the Christmas story responded in worship. Today they serve as our examples.
What could worshiping fully look like for you in this season of Advent?
Worshiping fully can take many different forms besides praise and prayer, which is what we typically think of as worship.
It could look like humility. That was Mary’s initial act of worship upon receiving news from the angel Gabriel that she would give birth to a son. Gabriel went on to tell her, “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end” (Luke 1:32-33, CSB).
God was about to do something incredible through the life of a teenage virgin from a hillbilly town that didn’t get any respect from the rest of the region. And what was Mary’s response? It was humility. She said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38, ESV).
Worshiping fully could also look like obedience. That was Joseph’s act of worship. Joseph’s part in the Advent Conspiracy is interesting. One day, the woman he was betrothed to marry came to him and confessed that she was with child by the Holy Spirit. If I was in his position, I probably wouldn’t hear anything past, “I’m pregnant and, well, we both know it’s not yours.”
That’s when we get a glimpse of Joseph’s character. He struggled with the news—so much so that he wanted to break off the engagement. But he also didn’t want to expose Mary to the public scrutiny and shame that was bound to follow. He desired to do it quietly.
That’s when God stepped in. An angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and commanded him to do something very difficult: take Mary as his wife and everything that came along with that. What was Joseph’s response? It was obedience. We read, “When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife. But he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus” (Matthew 1:24-25, NLT).
Here are a few other ways to worship fully. The shepherds’ act of worship was to share the Good News that they had experienced with others (Luke 2:17). Anna’s act of worship was gratitude (Luke 2:38). The Magi’s act of worship a bit later was generosity (Matthew 2:11). The common theme is that all these people worshipped the Lord according to their character and ability.
So again, I ask you, how can you worship fully this Advent season?
Is it through humility, obedience, sharing the Good News, gratitude, or generosity? Or something else? I’d encourage you to pray through the list and ask God what act of worship He wants you to participate in this Advent (or think up one of your own).