Chapter 4: A Man and Worship

from Pat Morley

Volume 224
April 2, 2007

NOTE: This is part of a series of excerpts from my new book, A Man’s Guide to the Spiritual Disciplines. We’ve also created a web site location at www.maninthemirror.org/spiritualdisciplines where you can obtain numerous additional audio, video, and print resources on the Spiritual Disciplines.

In Chapter 4, “A Man and Worship,” there are ten practical suggestions for a richer worship life. Here are the last two of those suggestions....

Suggested Spiritual Exercises

9. Family Worship
If you are married, don’t neglect leading your wife and children into a deeper holiness and experience of worshiping God. Gather your family in the morning to pray for the day. Take five minutes and share how you saw God work the day before. Ask everyone for prayer requests. Dedicate the day to His glory and praise. When you gather for meals, be sure to ask God’s blessing and offer thanks. It’s a wonderful example, and certainly captures the Greek concept of worship—“to kiss, the way a dog licks its master’s hand.”

10. Work
Broadcaster Roy Firestone once interviewed a seven-foot tall, 260-pound specimen of pure muscle and athleticism, a man who had led his team to back-to-back championships and had been named an all-star twelve times and one of the best big men in the history of the National Basketball Association. “Your teammates tell me that every time you hit the hardwood you give 110 percent,” Firestone said. “They say that you’ll go out and practice and shoot hook shots for hours and hours and hours. They tell me that you will run wind sprints until you literally cannot walk anymore. They say that during a scrimmage that you will go for loose balls like it’s the NBA finals. Why? You’re one of the best there has ever been in this game. Why don’t you just lie back and take it easy?”

He said, “Roy, you need to know something. When I go out onto the hardwood, I’m not going to work. I’m going to worship. How would I dare to not give back to God what He has given to me with joy and thanksgiving? No, I don’t go to work. I go to worship.”

His name is Hakeem Olajuwan. He’s a Muslim. He’s not a Christian, and yet God in His providence has given him the insight that our work is meant to be an act of worship.

3 Suggestions for How to Use This Article

• If applicable, experiment with a time of family worship in the morning two or three days a week until school lets out. Then, ask the family if they would like to gear up again after summer’s over.
• If you are in a small group, discuss this article. Answer these questions:
  • How could a time of family worship enrich the lives of those you love?
  • Do you think of work as an act of worship, and why or why not?
  • In what practical ways might your view of people and tasks change if your worldview held that work is worship?

For the glory of Christ and no other reason,

Pat Morley, Ph.D.

P.S. You can order this book through Man in the Mirror by going to www.maninthemirror.org/spiritualdisciplines.