Our Priority In Ministry

Worship is ministry to the Lord. We can sincerely offer little definition of worship. The Bible gives clear definition and examples of how our praise is to be conducted. Words like "joy" "gladness" "singing" "dancing" "playing instruments" "clapping our hands" "shouting for joy" etc, etc. give rich understanding of all that is appropriate as a means of expression when offering praise.
Worship is a different thing...
Consider the fact that no one can really tell you how to love your wife, or husband. You have to grow in that relationship experientially. There is no manual provided at a wedding ceremony that gives newly wed couples that "how to" on successfully loving a spouse.
Worshipping God is kind of the same. It has to be experiential.
And just like we can understand being created for a marriage relationship... we were created for just the same to be worshippers of God.
I cannot emphasize enough that our purpose for being created is to offer up sacrifices of praise, the fruit of our lips giving thanks, that ministers to the heart of our loving Father. Jesus emphasized this important element of our purpose by stating that the Father is seeking those who will worship in spirit and truth. Obviously God wants it; therefore, we should be quick to respond by giving that which ultimately pleases Him, rather than seeking our own methods. In the 44th chapter of Ezekiel we find that ministry to the Lord is not to be taken for granted, nor to be regarded as secondary to the value of ministry to people. Ministry to people is vital to the work of the Church, but it is never to be considered our highest priority. When looking at the passages in Ezekiel 44 we see that God punished Israeli priests for profaning the temple by taking away their rights to minister to HIM in their daily duties. This left them only the responsibilities of ministry to people.
Isn't that odd?
God left the priests with the duties of ministry to people. But prohibited them from ministry to HIM.
Most people have the impression that ministry is "all about the people."
Ministry to the Lord is our first priority in this life.
Ministry to people can become as burdensome as a prison sentence when it does not spring from ministry to the Lord first. Ministry to the Lord refreshes and energizes. Let’s take our purpose and calling seriously and enter the house of God with the desire to worship Him first and foremost. After making that our top priority, we will see that ministry to people will flourish as the result of our spending time worshipping Jesus.