Since last Christmas, General Lyndon Buckingham has been writing and filming monthly devotional videos released online on The Salvation Army International Headquarters YouTube page. Salvationists from around the world tune into these short videos to receive an uplifting message from the international leader of The Salvation Army, creating a sense of spiritual unity that transcends borders. The following is his July devotional:

I’m coming to you today from the boardroom at International Headquarters. It’s called the Rotunda. It’s a place of business. Lots of decisions that impact the international Salvation Army are made right here in this room. One of the things that I really enjoy about being in this room is that not only is it a place where business is conducted, but it’s also a place where the word of God is opened, where prayers are offered and where worship takes place. It sort of changes the dynamic of the room when you start to think about it as a place of worship, not just a place of work.

When Paul was writing to the believers in Romans, he said this: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God — this is your true and proper worship” (Romans 12:1 NIV). Eugene Peterson paraphrased that in the Message, and it reads like this: “So here’s what I want you to do. God helping you, take your everyday, ordinary life, your sleeping, your eating, your going to work and your walking around life and place it before God as an offering.”

When I come into this place, I’m reminded that the whole of my life, the whole of my service, from the very sacred to the very mundane, can all actually be offered to God as worship. Not only can it bless His heart, but it can actually bless the lives of other people as well.

I want you to think about that. I want you to think about your ordinary life, the things that you do on a daily basis, your coming and going, your interactions with other people, the approach that you take to the work that’s been entrusted to your care, and maybe view it as an act of worship that can bless the heart of God and also bless and influence those around you. Your everyday life has the potential to be an act of worship that blesses the heart of God.

May God bless you.