First, let us look at what the bible says about worship.
John 4;21-24 (NKJV)
Jesus said to her, “Woman believe Me the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. 22 “You worship what you do not know, we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. 23 “But the hour is coming and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
What is worship?
Jesus told the woman that “You worship what you do not know, but we know what we worship. True worship comes from Knowing God. We must know the God we worship. The only way our worship will be effective will determine the way we know, see and understand God. Worship is acknowledging God as the source of everything we have. Worship itself is not easy as we think no, it is not!, and we all struggle to worship God (including myself), yet it is very simple to worship God. Some of us are being classified in the category where we worship what we do not know. We may think that we are worshipping God but we really are not! I’m saying this because our manner of worship to God does not show that we know Him. For instance, imagine if God was visible and you could see Him. What would you do? I’m sure we would all dread and tremble whenever we saw Him. You wouldn’t dare even touch your phone while in church, in fact you’d switch if off, you wouldn’t stand up, and if it is to give you’d want to give the best, you would even forget the person next to you because your full attention would be on Him. you would honour His presence and show much respect as possible.
But in reality this is not happening, this makes you think that because we cannot see God, we forget that He is watching us, we fail to acknowledge Him because of our fleshly desires. Such as being careless for lateness in church, showing up anytime or even end up not showing up, forced to raise our hands during worship, doing it because of other people but not in truth, some of us pull out our phones and scroll on social media or play games in the middle of the sermon, showing no reverence for God’s word. We give our time and value for material things than we do for God’s things. We put our jobs, children, husbands, wives, parents, and so on first before God and then God is the last. Some of us get so busy and busy that we have failed to create a day or time for God. The truth is we just don’t care, our love for God grew cold. This kind of worship shows we really don’t know God and that we are worshipping something we don’t know which is why I say it again It is hard to worship God, we all struggle to worship God and it is one of the greatest weapons the enemy fights most, but as long as we know and acknowledge God, our worship can become simple and pleasing to God.
What can I do so that God is pleased and receives my worship?
“But the hour is coming and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
God yearns for true worship. He is looking for true worshippers, not worshippers because we all can worship God but not in true worship to Him. Jesus said the true worshippers are those who worship God in spirit and in truth. God is spirit and they that worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. Now first, we have to know that God is spirit, we cannot worship God in flesh or with our flesh, what do I mean? Romans 8:5 says for those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. The flesh hinders us to worship God in a manner that pleases Him, when we are being minded by our flesh, we are concerned of the things of the flesh, how to satisfy this body and give it what it wants like in church, we are so concerned about clothes and what should I wear, we have made it a competition because we want to dress perfectly well like so and so as if our value comes from just clothes that can wither away anytime. Money, money has become a main issue, don’t get me wrong money is good and we need it, but the excess love of it is totally not right, we work 24/7 all week, no day or time for God, even if we go to church on Sunday we don’t give 100% focus on God, we will get distracted by anything like our phones, children, friends etc. During worship, our minds may not be on God but on that situation, that person, that, dress, that promotion, that thing, name it… which describes our failure to worship God because our hearts are far far away from Him. (We are in the flesh). Since God is Spirit, He wants us to worship and live in the Spirit and living in the Spirit is totally opposite to the flesh. It’s when we crucify the flesh and make it submit to God! God wants our hearts totally focussed, concentrated on Him. God wants all of You! To worship Him, He wants us to worship Him with everything we have, not just part of us, He wants your lifestyle to be surrendered to Him. God wants your whole mind, body, heart and everything to be only on Him, He wants to be the centre! Yes! He hears your words, how you speak well of Him, but if your heart is far from Him those are just empty words to Him and do you think He is pleased with that? Worshipping God in truth doesn’t involve emotions or feelings. Worshipping God based on our emotions and feelings is being mainly concerned at the external things, however our worship and everything we do is meant to be in truth with our attention fixed on God and not with what’s going on around us.
Psalm 99: 8-9
You answered them, O Lord our God; You were to them God-Who-Forgives, though you took vengeance on their deeds. 9 Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at His holy hill; for the Lord our God is holy. (NKJV)
We can only know God through Studying His word, True worship is for and only about God, Seeing Him as He really is! Singing our hearts out to Him not just mere singing, acknowledging Him and what He has done for us, emptying ourselves so He can fill us. Realising that only God has sustained you, provided, protected and has made you become who you are today. This is called true worship!
I pray that God helps us to worship Him in truth and in spirit, His grace is sufficient. May He grace you and me to become true worshipers whom He is looking for today.
God Bless You.
ALL ABOUT JESUS 