Distractions and Worship

Josh here -

In September 2010, I posted about our family Bible Time. I believe that this kind of thing is one of the most important things a family can and should do.
However, not only are there things that a family should do, but there are things a family ought not do. Consider these scriptural commands and how they ought to be applied to our lives:
- We are to be in the world but not of the world (John 17:14, 1 John 2:15)
- We are called to be "holy" and "perfect" (1 Peter 1:15, Matt. 5:48)
- We are to avoid every kind of evil (1 Thess. 5:22)

So therefore, how should we act in our daily lives? Should we look at things arouse greed, covetousness, lust, envy, or other sins? Should we listen to things do that? Should we participate in activities that do that?

Ravi Zacharias was once asked about how he dealt with his own temptations, and he went on to talk about 'worship.' I didn't understand what he was getting at until years later when I considered Col. 3:17: "And whatever you do, whether in thought, word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." In church on Sunday, everything we do is focused on God, and that is true worship and this verse. However, this verse assumes we always do everything in that manner, as our daily personal worship. I believe that anything that does what it was created by God to do gives glory to God. Even a tree declares God's glory by growing and reproducing as God intended (Psalm 19). When we do what we were created to do, we also worship. When we fail to do that, then we either cease to worship or (as I think is probably more correct) we begin to worship something else other than God. In other words, we're always worshipping, but it's either God or ourselves.

If everything we do is a form of worship, then should we spend time watching junk on TV, listening to raunchy music, spending countless hours filling our heads with sports trivia, participating in activities that don't glorify Him, or buying things for ourselves that are merely entertainment? We all ought to consider how much time and money we spend on 'stuff' and 'entertainment.'

Does that mean we should get rid of the TV? In our family, we have chosen to do just that. Certainly there are some things worth watching, but with such a host of other things to do, we've chosen not to do TV at all. We have a TV, but we can only watch DVD's and videos. We allow ourselves one movie a week for the family, and it's often something from the black-and-white era. We don't listen to rock or pop music (and we don't think much of the majority of Contemporary Christian Music) but rather listen to music that is either more complex in it's composition (such as classical, romantic, baroque, etc) or more folk like (such as hymns and other folk music). We are careful about who our kids spend time with, we don't let them play video games (except Knut is allowed 1/2 hour a week on a lego game he really enjoys), and I'm sure there are a great many other things about us that fall outside of the normal worldly family.

Now, I'm not trying to brag about what we do, nor saying that we are an example to uphold. (indeed, I left out things that I know I ought to change) Rather I mention these things to give you an example of things to consider, and think about how and why you do some of the things you do in your family. We're all on our journey to being more and more holy as we grow in our walk with the Lord, and that's what it's all about.

May God help us all to remove the many tempting distractions in our lives so that we may be closer to Him, and worship Him in all that we do every day of our lives.