“But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeks such to worship Him.”
We who attend church every Sunday need to take a fresh look at worship and what it means to our lives. (Of course, this also applies to those who do not attend church every Sunday.) Are we just warming a pew, or is our weekly worship making a difference in our reverence for Christ, and in our daily lives? Jesus’ answer to the “woman at the well” in John 4, gives us a definition of what true worship is. The elements of true worship…. One thing that we should take into our public and private worship is a recognition of the worthiness of God. God is, indeed, worthy of our worship, and we need to approach worship with the understanding of His worthiness. God’s worthiness is seen in His greatness – His omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. We need to approach God in worship with reverence for His holy name. This doesn’t mean that when we talk to Him in worshipful prayer that we need to change our voices into a “holy tone.” We need to talk honestly with Him, but with the understanding that He is Almighty, sovereign God. Our worship should certainly include adoration for Him. The Christmas hymn, “O Come all Ye Faithful,” tells us, “O come let us adore Him, O come let us adore Him, O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.” Real worship will certainly include communion with Him. When we worship God, we speak to Him and we wait for Him to speak to us. We need to take all of these elements into our worship closet at home and to our public worship at church. The essentials of true worship…. Jesus said that we should “worship the Father in spirit.” Among other things, this means that we worship Him with everything that is within us. We take all that we are and surrender ourselves to Him in adoration and praise. I would add that we need to worship the Father in Spirit as well. (The capital 'S' refers to the Holy Spirit.) Without the Holy Spirit, there would be no worship. We need to throw ourselves into worship in spirit and in Truth. This might mean that we become demonstrative in our faith, but, if you are like me, it means that your heart, mind and soul are drawn closer to God in quietness and reverence. There is no one way to worship the Father in spirit. We should also worship Him in truth. This can mean a lot of things. It can mean that we worship Him because we know that He is the “Way, the Truth and life.” But it also means that when we worship Him we are honest and truthful in our confession and in our worship of Him. We don’t have to fake feelings that we do not have. The Lord had rather have the truth out of you as you worship Him. We should also worship the Lord in sincerity. I mentioned that we do not have to fake our feelings when we worship God. He wants us to bring our depression and other negative things in order for worship of Him to help us to live better lives. This will happen if we are sincere in our worship. The effects of true worship…. When we truly worship the Lord, He supplies our deepest needs. We should leave private and public worship with a sense of relief that we have done business with God and that He has met our needs in worship. We certainly need to pray that God will meet all of our needs, spiritual and physical, as we worship Him – and He will. When we truly worship God, we leave the worship experience as better people. In other words, true worship of God will make a difference in our lives. It will make a difference in how we treat people and how we relate to people. We often leave a negative impression of what Christians are because we don’t act differently from the world. Like they did with the apostles, people should “take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus.” Surely, if we truly encounter Jesus in worship, He will make a difference in our lives. I doubt that we scratched the surface of true worship, but the three things written here should have a positive effect our worship experiences. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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