I've been thinking a lot today about a blog a friend of mine posted the other day titled: "Totally Confused About Worship." It caused me to think about today's view and definition of worship (which has become so generalized) and caused me to challenge my own thought and definition about it. I realized that in the past year, I have been challenged in that area, and today something hit me so I ran with it. Let's see if I can unpack this. Remember I'm learning.
In the Gospel of John, 4:23 Jesus tells the woman at the well "Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks." That verse popped into my head today and so I started to analyze it.
Let's take the SPIRIT side of it first. In Romans 12:1 it says "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship."
So what does this say? That we should live a life of righteousness, servitude, holiness, purity, selflessness all in view of the mercy and grace God showed us through His son Jesus Christ? Maybe so
TRUTH: Jesus said He was "the way the truth and the life". I think this is where the intellectual side of worship comes into play. It so often gets pushed out by mindless singing of songs that we don't take the time to listen to, and think about their meaning. If Jesus is TRUTH, then it only makes sense to me that we should be filled with the knowledge of who Christ was, what He did and will do. Truth is light, truth is revealing, truth is trust worthy. Truth is living with the intimate knowledge of who Christ is and what he has done for you.
I have always believed that if people fully realized what Christ did for them and who He is, they would not be able to contain the joy and wonder that would swell up inside them. They would have to let it out or they would burst. It would dramatically effect their life and the lives of those around them.
So I guess to sum it up based on what I have expressed, to worship in spirit and in truth is;
To respond to God with an intimate knowledge of who He is, what He has done in my life, and what He said He will do. To surrender my entire being to His will and to serve Him with a grateful and humble heart.
I know one day we will know exactly what Christ meant when He said "Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks."
This is what I live for, to worship God my Father, this is what I was created for and this is what you were created for. So let us worship Him with all that we are, with all that we've been given, in response to who He is.
3 comments:
That was a great summary. Was about to begin a study on worship and did a random search and here was this blogpost! I'm currently reading A.W. Tozer's book on worship and its tremendously challenging!! Check out my blog too and stay intouch fellow "pusher in God"
Thanks for this. I'm leading a small group discussion of this tonight, and your take on worship is very helpful.
This is simply amazing! God is trully God! I woke up at 6am this morning with that phrase (worship the Lord in spirit and in truth)in my mind. I started searching the web for what it truly meant. This is the 2nd website like this one, likened "in Spirit" to "not yielding our members into unrighteousness", which I partly understand to be strivingto be sinless. The "in Truth" refered to something I had always feared and suspected -SINCERITY. Most of us (myself included)tend to worship the Lord more when in need. We draw closer to Him in expectation of something more material than spiritual. But that was not why I said God is amazing- After going through the commentary, I noticed that first commentary was from Toyin. Thats a name from Nigeria, where I am also from. The second revelation is that the original blog was Feb 16, 2007- exactly five years today! on my dad's birthday> He died 9 months ago and I miss him. He wasnt spiritually loud loud but was always looking for the Lord> if this is not a message for me, I dont know what is! Thank You Jesus!!
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