prodigal worshippers

To start, it would be prime if you'd take a quick look at the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15, or bring it to mind.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2015:11-32

It tells about son who takes his share of the inheritance, jets off to a different area, and blows all his money on stupid choices- living the "good life" at a high price. After a while he finds himself bankrupt : both money and morals. You know the story. Once he hits rock bottom, he comes to his senses and decides to go home to be a servant. Arriving back he's accepted with open arms by his father who has been waiting for him. awww. etc..
The story is tucked in with two other parables of lost items being found, and tells us how our God seeks to bring us back to himself despite our bad choices. Forgiveness, grace, ---salvation.

I've been thinking a fair bit about worship recently. It's a tough subject to write on because it's a word so often associated simply with church singing. Anybody who's spent much time at PVBC, or talking with staff will know that we've been working together on learning how worship is much more of a lifestyle than an event. We want to bring glory to God in our actions all the time, and when we sing, we reflect these choices in one way.

John 4:23-24
Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."

Our worship is an act of our connecting with God and lifting him up, but also is an act that needs to be reflected as true in our actions. We are hypocrites if we think that we can sing about giving all for Jesus when we still selfishly hold onto our lives like a little kid caught stealing candy.

This is where I find myself in the parable of the prodigal son. I realize it's written about people being "found" for the first time, but we all sin and continue to come back to the father for his forgiveness. It applies to Christians as well, because we are obviously not perfect. Our sin doesn't push God away from us- he is always near. It blinds us to see him and hear his voice. My act of worship is getting up each time I fall and refusing to stay away from a father who loves. It seems stupid really, how often he takes us back. Doesn't he know? But it's true, and that's what makes it amazing- he does know how we fail, and how we will continue to fail, and yet he has this incredible love. A love I can't begin to understand, so big that he looks past the fact that it's the hundredth time this week that I've had to come stumbling home and still is there to welcome me.

Romans 12:1
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual act of worship.

We worship in spirit and in truth by offering our everyday lives to God- nothing held back. God knows we fail, but our worship comes not just in singing, but in each time we choose to surrender to him rather than hold our own ways. Maybe today that means turning off the TV to spend time in the word. Maybe it means showing kindness, encouraging, or listening when you really don't feel like. Maybe you need to take a look at what it is that's blinded you to his presence in your life, or maybe celebrate the places you do see him. God loves his broken children, his prodigal worshippers. The sooner we can realize that we are each day in the same boat as the prodigal son-in desperate need of our father- the sooner we can get back to worship- as more than just words.