Worship. When we think about this word, it conjures up so many thoughts and ideas. Most people think of a Sunday morning worship celebration or a certain style of music, and that’s about as far as it goes. We live with such a limited view of what this word entails. Our definition is stifled by the culture that we’ve grown up in. All we know is worship in American Christianity, and that doesn’t even scratch the surface. There’s so much that we are losing just by going along with what is popular in the world around us.

I want to take a different and unique approach to this word that we know as worship. There’s nothing wrong with a Sunday morning worship celebration or worship music as we know it. In fact, these are two very important parts of our journey with Christ. We need times of corporate worship and equipping as the body of Christ, but it must go much deeper than just the hour that we spend together on Sunday morning. There’s a whole world out there just waiting to be discovered on what God wants to reveal to us about this very important word also known as worship.

I want to explore worship in one very important area of our lives that we face hundreds of times a day. In fact, I didn’t even think of this as being an area of worship until God began to reveal truth to me on this subject. After my eyes were opened to this, then I began to allow God the space to mold and shape me in this part of my life. It’s my prayer that He will mold and shape the way that you think about this, as well.

This one area of worship that I am referring to is the act of worship in our thought life. God knows every thought that we’ve ever had. In fact, He knows what we’re thinking about before we even think it. This puts Him in a place in our life that no one else has ever been or will ever be. The God that created the whole world knows our every thought. How do we even begin to comprehend that?

So how do we worship God in our thought life? It’s really quite simple, yet not always easy to do. We must be consciously aware of what we are thinking about. When we have a thought that goes against His Word or that doesn’t bring Him glory, then we must take that thought captive. We aren’t able to keep a thought from popping in our minds, but we are able to do something with it. We were created with the ability to process thoughts in our minds. What we take in through our eyes and ears is being processed in our thoughts whether we realize it or not so we must be extremely careful as to what we are allowing access into this complex computer, also known as our thinking center.

It’s important that we are taking in a steady diet of God’s Word. In fact, this should take precedence in our lives. The more that we meditate on His Word, the more that we are worshipping God in our thought life because we are giving Him first place. Read it, listen to it, and consume it until it consumes you. You’ll find that the more that The Word gets into you, the more that The Word will come out of your mouth in speech and conversation. What’s working on the inside of us has a way of working it’s way to the outside of us every time.

Keeping a constant source of positivity in our minds is another way of worshiping God in our thought life. Kick negative thinking to the curb. Listen to praise and worship music. Download apps on your phone so that you can listen to sermons and Bible teaching all throughout the week. Stay in a constant conversation with God all during the day and night. Begin and end the day with God. Be around people that build you up and encourage you in your walk with God. Make weekly church attendance a part of your life.

Our test for knowing that we are staying on target in our thought life goes back to Philippians 4:8. “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.” These are the ways that we must strive to honor God in our thought life.

So the next time you think that it’s just a thought and it doesn’t matter, think again. Every thought has the ability to worship and honor God or the ability to push Him further away. Make the decision today to bring glory to God in your thought life. Remember it’s the little foxes that spoil the vine (Song of Solomon 2:15).