November 9 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Devotional

The word worship comes from worth-ship. It's related to worthy, as in "worthy is the Lamb." To worship God means to give God what he is worthy to receive.

Worship will eventually unite the whole creation. The hearts of all people and the direction of all that lives will form a perfect harmony— not around a conference table but around the throne. The end of life is worship. The goal of living is praise. When we offer proper worship, we are completely free.

For a picture of freedom by worship, put yourself in a stadium at a foot­ball game. But this time don't watch the game. Just watch the crowd—all those people different from each other in color, opinion, and character. On an ordinary day, in an ordinary room, you could not get six of them to say the same thing on any topic. But here they are unreservedly united in cheering on their team. For the moment, at least, they are entirely free from every private worry. Nobody's even thinking about the mortgage payments. The hope and happiness of every person there is wrapped up in their team's victory. Those fans in the stadium are a perfect parable of freedom by worship.

The goal of the cosmos is the praise of God. The universe will be free when all our streams of thought and all our aspirations converge on the throne of God.

Today we may already experience something of the freedom and unity of worship. In those rare moments when our prayers turn to praise, we are free. Health, house, money, misery, even sin and guilt are forgotten when we climb the stairway of praise.

In those moments when we have nothing to ask and everything to give, we make the great discovery that we were made for God. We realize that God and the Lamb are worthy of the worship of all that exists. And we find unity! Effortlessly we find each other in the praises of our God.

REFLECTIONS

If you are reading this with others present, read Revelation 5:12 as your song of praise to God. If you are alone, read it as you imagine saying it with the multitude described in verse 11.

Andrew Kuyvenhoven's Daylight, a modern devotional classic, was originally published by Paideia Press in 1977. This updated edition is copyright 2009 by Faith Alive Christian Resources. You can order a copy of this revised version of the book directly from the publisher.

A man of many accomplishments, Andrew Kuyvenhoven is probably best known for his contributions to Today (formerly The Family Altar), a widely-used monthly devotional booklet associated with the Back to God Hour. Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations for this updated edition of Daylight are from the Holy Bible: Today's New International Version copyright 2001, 2005 by the International Bible Society.