A worship offering

Our Daily Blog's verse today was Micah 6:8, a familiar one to many of us. I grabbed my Bible and did some "around" reading to put it into perspective, and got this:

With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be please with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

THAT is worship. THAT is what God wants us to bring into His presence as an offering to Him. Justice, mercy, and a life lived with Him. Nothing that can be placed in an offering plate or counted in the church office or listed on a "tithe return slip". Just daily living out of what He inspires in us.

Darren D pointed me in the direction of Dan's post on church/social responsibility and priorities. He's got some very good points - but how many of us just rely on "the church" to take care of our social justice issues, to help out the needy and the poor from "what we pay them". And then go our own ways without a second thought. How many of us would rather use our power than express mercy. And how many of us truly walk with God in every aspect, every minute, every second of our lives.

How many of us miss the point that this is worship.

In my quest to discover what worship truly is, these verses have challenged my perceptions of what I bring to God, of how I live for Him as an act of worship. I'm adding this to my mental Worship Database as slowly I learn what it's all about.