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Worship: The Oil of the Spiritual Life

  • Pastor Ray Pritchard
    Dr. Ray Pritchard is the president of Keep Believing Ministries, an Internet-based ministry serving Christians in 225 countries. He is the author of 29 books, including Stealth Attack, Fire and Rain,… More
  • Updated Jun 18, 2007

My favorite definition of worship comes from William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury many years ago. "To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination with the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God." Worship is to be the central point of the Christian life, and when we make it first, everything else falls into place.

One fine spring morning in Texas I noticed that the sun was coming out, the grass was beginning to grow, and it was time to bring out the lawn mower.  When it wouldn't start I kept pulling until I finally broke the rope. Then I checked the spark plug and put it back in place. I put my fingers in the gas chamber and found dirty gas from the past fall. I checked a few other connections and found everything in working order. The blades were sharp and ready to go, no problem there. I took it to a repair shop where they said they would fix it. A few days later it was ready. We had to replace something in the engine. I asked what the matter was. They said there was no oil in the motor. For some reason it had never occurred to me to put oil in a lawn mower. When the oil had run out, the motor wouldn't run anymore.

Behold this simple truth. Worship is the oil of the spiritual life. When you start to run low on worship, your life starts to break down. If you feel a little broken down, it may not be because you are busy, but maybe you have run low on worship. When you lift the worship of God back to its proper place, your life will start working again.

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