Worship

“Worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by his holiness; the nourishment of mind with his truth; the purifying of imagination by His beauty; the opening of the heart to his love; the surrender of will to his purpose – and all of this gathered up in adoration.” - William Temple

I LOVE worship. It's one of my favorite parts about having a relationship with God. 2 Corinthians 3:16-18 says "Now the Lord is the Spirit where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit". When we remove the veil over our faces, we remove distractions and worries. We get to stand before God, face to face. With our attention fully on him, God transforms us into his image!

In John 4:23-24 Jesus says, "But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth". Jesus says that the only acceptable way to worship him is in spirit and in truth. He seeks true worshippers.

So, how can you be wrongly worshipping?

Vain worship = zero worship. You can do good deeds and go to as many church services as you want and never be worshiping if it is all external and nothing is happening in your heart toward God. Matthew 15: 8-9 says “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men”.

As we worship, we should be thinking about how good God is to us even though we are so unworthy of his goodness. James 4:8 says “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you". Singing, praying, studying the bible, and serving others are things designed by God to bring us closer to him. The closer we get to him, the more we start to think like he does. & the more we think like he does, the more we look like him!

So, how can we worship him? Hebrews 13:15-16 says “Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God” We get to worship God through praise, repentance, and loving his children by serving and giving to them sacrificially.

The more we worship God rightly, the more we start to look like him. We develop traits from his character such as forgiveness, tenderness, kindness, and lovingness. We are being prepared for our lives in Heaven! We should be setting our minds on things above; We should be doing all things with the kingdom and our eternal lives in mind rather than our earthly, finite lives.