Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense

Worship is a natural human reaction to the gift of divine revelation. Worship is not an undignified, groveling submission to a narcissistic being who brought the world into existence on account of his own ego. Worship is similar to the spontaneous utterance of joy and gratitude upon receiving a marvelous gift. Worship, by the strict definition, “means, literally, acknowledging the worth of something or someone. It means recognizing and saying that something or someone is worthy of praise” (144). It is a kind of falling in love with the object being worshiped—in this case, the object of our affection is the God of the universe. Theology, then, is not a speculative quest for useless knowledge of which we can never be 100% sure; theology is the search for knowledge of the beloved so that we can know and love God more.

Similar to the human act of worship, the act of prayer is a means by which we acknowledge our relationship with God and, at the same time, attempt to set our own thinking straight in regard to him. The prayer that Jesus offers in the Gospels, commonly known as “The Lord’s Prayer” or “The Our Father,” is an example of a prayer that concerns the desire to bring