But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers 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.”
John 4:23-24 NKJV
When the term “Worship” is used by a lot of believers today, it usually means a section in the Sunday service where the worship leader sings a couple of choruses and leads the congregation to worship. In some circles, the tempo of the song determines worship: Slow songs are Worship songs and fast songs are Praise songs. To the samaritan woman in John 4:21-24, the important thing about worship was where it took place. However, Jesus redefined worship, pointing the essence of Worship to God.
The word translated as Worship in the new testament means to crouch down or to prostrate one’s self in reverence and humble adoration. A way to describe this is a dog licking the hands of its master. It involves intimate knowledge, affection, reverence, and a complete focus on the one that is worshiped. Worship is not about a couple of choruses song, it is a lifestyle of total devotion. True Worship reveals the one a person worships. The reason for man’s existence is to worship God and God alone. We were designed to bring God pleasure and just like a thing functions best when it is doing what it was made to do, man functions at his best capacity when Worshiping God. All creation was designed to worship man, however, the man was to take this worship and pass it on to God.
According to Jesus, the requirement or worship was that it must be done “in Spirit and in Truth. The idea of worshipping in Spirit shows the state from which man worships God. Due to the fall, man was separated from God and became a dead soul, disconnected from the Spirit of Life. Worshipping God must be done from a place of oneness and union with God, the Spirit of Life. A man who is not reconciled and brought back into the Spirit of life, cannot worship God. Worshipping in truth is borne out of a true recognition of who is being worshipped. Hence, Jesus told the Samaritan worship, ye know not Whom you Worship.
Every man worships something. Psalm 135:18 shows that those who worship idols are like them. This means worship gives you a unique privilege to become like the one you worship. Because Man was made to be in the image and likeness of God and because of the amount of devotion and affection required to worship, God commanded Israel, that they should not worship any other God besides Him, these gods involved themselves. Self-worship is one of the most deceptive forms of worship because it glorifies the creature as opposed to the creator. It is actually devil worship or the worship of the adversary. Romans 8:7 says the flesh is at enmity with God, albeit, and it is inspired by rebellion and the lie of the devil that man can be like God by the knowledge of good and evil.
True worship, however, is characterized by true humility and an understanding of one weakness that God may be strong in him. True worship gives focus and purpose to life and is based on grace and not human effort. Acts 17:25 says that God is not worshipped with the work of man’s hands, this means we come to the Lord by the blood of Jesus to receive that which we must use to worship Him. Worship with anything else is rejected and can even be deadly like in the case of Nadab and Abihu in Leviticus 10:1. True worship is faith-based. This is because faith pleases God and we worship a God that does not appeal to our natural senses.
Final thoughts: Man loves to worship things that appeal to his natural senses. This is why the average unbeliever will idolize a man, money, pleasure, etc. A true worshipper of God, however, is a man at his finest because he is doing what he was created to do. In this worship, He has access to the fulness of Joy in the presence of God and the unending pleasures at His right hand. A true worshipper by his exposure to God inevitably exhibits God-like characteristics. However, he points others to the God whom he worships who desires and deserves all worship.
Prayer: Dearest Father, I come to you today in humble adoration. Thank you for opening the way for us to worship you with a true revelation and knowledge of you. Help me to resist the temptation today to glorify or set my devotion to anything else but You who deserves all the worship and praise and honour. Amen.
Scripture: John 4: 1-30
0 Comments