Returning God the Worship He Deserves

One of the most powerful weapons of spiritual warfare is precisely worship. The most powerful motivation for Satan's action in the world is the illegitimate desire to obtain the glory and authority that belongs only to God.

The prophet Isaiah, in a passage that has always been recognized as a prophetic reference to the origins of Satan, describes this insatiable appetite for illegitimate worship (Isaiah 14: 12-15):

12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! You were cut down to the ground, you that weakened the nations.

13 You who said in your heart: I will ascend to heaven; on high, next to the stars of God, I will raise my throne, and on the mount of testimony I will sit, on the sides of the north;

14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, and will be like the Most High.

15 But you are thrown down to Sheol, on the sides of the deep.

God demolishes Lucifer from his original archangel glory precisely because of his pride and rebellion. The root of all evil and sin that affects humanity is precisely rebellion against the lordship and glory of God. This is why God is so jealous of his glory. Worship addresses that eternal controversy between Satan and God.

Worship, moreover, neutralizes the pride and rebellion that exist in man, and recognizes the place of dependence and subjection that he occupies before God. In Romans 1, the apostle Paul points out that humanity has suffered a degeneration similar to Lucifer's by refusing, like him, to give God the glory that He deserves:

21 For knowing God, they did not glorify him as God, nor give thanks, but were puffed up in their reasoning, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

22 Professing to be wise, they became fools,

23 and they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the image of corruptible man, birds, quadrupeds, and reptiles.

24 For this reason God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, so that they dishonored their own bodies among themselves,

25 since they exchanged the truth of God for the lie, honoring and worshiping the creatures before the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

26 For this reason God gave them up to shameful passions; because even their women changed the natural use for the one that is against nature,

27 and in the same way also men, leaving the natural use of women, ignited in their lust with one another, men committing shameful acts with men, and receiving in themselves the retribution due to their misguidance.

28 And since they did not approve of taking God into account, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do things that are not convenient;

The apostle Paul is clear. As mankind refused to give God the glory due to his name, God abandoned the rebellious men to a shameful degeneration in the dimension of their body, emotions, appetites and mind. Like Lucifer banished from his angelic glory, man, by his rebellion and refusal to render glory and praise to God, is also deposed from his dignity and reduced to a shameful and dysfunctional state. Their actions and behavior "are not suitable" (kathēkonta, gr.). In other words, their actions are harmful, dangerous, detrimental to their own well-being.

The only thing that can counteract this negative effect of rebellion is humility. That humility manifests itself through a decision to pay God the worship He deserves. That is why worship is so powerful, as it corrects that essential injustice committed against God, and puts both Him and His creature (the human being) in the correct position.