What is a Daily Liturgy?

So, you’ve stumbled upon our site, and you’re wondering: What is a daily liturgy? 

To understand what we mean by “daily liturgy”, we must first begin with liturgy. A liturgy is defined as “a form or formulary according to which public religious worship, especially Christian worship, is conducted.” [1]. In essence, a liturgy is the form or order of a public worship gathering. For example, in our weekly worship gatherings, this takes the form of singing, praying, confessing, preaching, observing the sacraments, and reading God’s Word. The goal of the liturgy is to help the congregation to worship God together in an orderly manner.

As Christians, though, we live seven days a week, not just one. And this means that we are called to live unto Christ seven days a week, not just one. In Christ we are new creations, seeking to make the best use of the time every day. We have died to the old self and its desires and have been raised again with Christ. This changes not just our attitudes as we take notes on another Sunday sermon, but the way we finish another project at work, the way we do the dishes, and so much more. Every moment of our lives is to be shaped and ruled by Christ, because he lived every moment of his life in obedience to God to save us. We can live in obedience to this calling or in denial of it. Our daily actions and thoughts will help us determine what we truly believe about God and if we are really living for Him. 

So, a daily liturgy is just that: the order and habits of our everyday lives that point us toward someone or something to worship. Everyone, whether Christian or not, has built their life around what they worship (and in our society, much like the in the time of the judges, that thing tends to be me, myself, and I). The object of our worship is revealed in our choices every day. The patterns and habits that we have established may help us in our pursuit of God or draw us away. 

Think about what you do when you wake up in the morning: Is it a sporadic, chaotic rush to get the kids a bowl of cereal and your clothes on before rushing out the door? Is it 30 minutes scrolling social media before you finally drag yourself out of bed and get ready for work? Is it a halfhearted prayer that you have prayed a thousand times? Do you have time to rise and meditate on God’s Word before the day begins? 

Evaluating our daily habits can give us a good idea of who or what it is that we worship. Although, it is important to emphasize that our daily actions and habits DO NOT determine whether or not we are saved. The determining factor of our salvation is Christ’s finished work on the cross. We do not save ourselves by creating a Christ centered life. Rather, God saves us and centers our life around Christ. This is not absent of our wills, but a conformation of our wills to His. He changes our hearts from the moment of salvation from dead, lifeless stones to living, beating flesh. We were once dead in our tresspasses. Although we walked, talked, and breathed, we were dead, living for ourselves, hating others and being hated by them. The blood running through our veins was once fueling our death, but now is being fueled by God for our life. 

And that is the point of this blog: hearts after God. As we share our daily lives and discuss what God is teaching us, we pray that God would use this to change your hearts as well. We will share about what we are doing, and we will share about our hearts in these things. We will share our joys and our failures. Most of all, we pray, we will share about the God who is working these things in us, and making it our purpose to serve Him in all that we do. He is the One who deserves any of the credit for anything we do. He is the One who works in us to will and to work for His good pleasure. When we read a challenging book, cook an amazing meal, or get the kids ready for bed with a thankful heart, we would do well to repent of any pride we have and give all the glory to God for doing these amazing things through us. We hope that this blog will help all readers to remember that God deserves all of the glory for anything that we do. 

In fact, no matter how “godly” our daily liturgy is- no matter how many hours we could spend in prayer, or serving others, or reading the Bible- we are still deserving of nothing but death. Even the good and right things we do are imperfect and tainted with sin. However, praise God, we don’t look to ourselves for salvation, but to Jesus! He lived the perfect life, and every single day his daily liturgy was perfect. All of His actions and all of His habits came from his great love for His Father. 

Therefore, let us look unto Jesus as we seek to reform our daily liturgies. As we cook, clean, work, nurse babies, provide for our households, read His Word, etc.- let us be continually gazing at the perfect man. He is our Savior, our mediator, our high priest. He is the vine, and we are the branches. He is the One who gives us life. Our actions, habits, and daily thoughts are important, but they are not our God. To obey God is better than burnt sacrifice; to have a life ruled by the Spirit is more pleasing to God than trudging through pretend obedience. 

So, as we share about our daily liturgies, we hope that you will ask yourself: Who am I worshiping? Is it the One True God? Or is it myself, or money, or something else? And, when we find our hearts going off after strange idols, let us remember His love, repent of our sin, and seek to conform our lives to His.