Worship The King
For you, what does it mean to worship?
Verse of the Day
‘For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.’
Today’s Devotional
If we are to wear the title of “Worshiper”, we must know how to worship. If we are to seek God’s Kingdom first and above all else, we must be willing to intentionally praise the King of the Kingdom.
Sometimes, our cultural understanding of a subject has veered off-course from what it originally meant. For instance, if you tell me you are going to worship God, I assume that this means music is involved.
Biblically, that’s not wrong, but it’s also not necessarily accurate. According to whatchristianswanttoknow.com, the words used in the Bible for “worship” have a variety of meanings or translations. Those include:
- To bow down
- To prostrate oneself
- To lay flat on the ground
- To fall on the knees
- To pay homage
- To render honor
- To ascribe worthiness
- To spread out the hands toward heaven
So we see that in the original language, there is no definition of “worship” that includes music. At the church I attend, worship is defined as “turning my mind and attention toward God”. I like this definition because it means that I can worship God anytime while I am doing anything.
So how do we worship God in spirit and in truth?
Let’s back up a little bit. This verse comes from a conversation that Jesus is having with the Samaritan woman at the well. The conversation alone is controversial, because Jesus was a Jew and the woman was a Samaritan. Jews did not associate with Samaritans. Men did not really “chat” with women, much less give a private tutorial lesson about worship to a woman. At that time, religious teaching was reserved for men only. In addition, this woman was an outcast even among the Samaritans, which we know because she is drawing her water at noon instead of the early morning with all of the other women before the heat of the day. And through the conversation with Jesus, we discover that this woman has been married 5 times and is living with a man who is not her husband. Personally, I love the fact that Jesus broke the societal rules of His day to show us God’s heart of inclusion for ALL of His children.
During the course of their conversation, the woman asks Jesus to tell her where the correct place to worship God is. She wanted to know the “rules” for worship, and her focus was on the location. Jesus’s answer has nothing to do with the location, but instead focuses on the posture of the worshipper’s heart.
I do not know exactly what Jesus meant by worshipping in spirit. My guess is that we need to recognize the non-humanness of God and the part of ourselves that is not physical. We need to let go of the temporal and physical when we turn our attention toward God. We need to remember that this physical world is not our home. We need to try to wrap our brains around the bigness of God that transcends our human experience. For me, that requires deliberate intention. I cannot worship in spirit if I am just going through the motions, whether I am at church, or during my private time with God, or going about my daily life.
When we worship God in truth, there is an authentic quality to our adoration of God. We cease to care what is going on around us. We are aware of God’s majesty and might. We are in awe of God’s holiness, aware of our sinfulness, and grateful that Jesus bridged that gap for us. There is nothing superficial, pretentious, or fake about worshipping God in truth.
I’m convinced that God wants my heart. Yours too. He wants me to recognize the magnitude of His glory and also His love for me. He wants me to be aware of the lengths He has gone to so that I can come into His presence. He wants those realizations to bring me a sense of overwhelming gratitude, so that my only response is to worship Him. To adore him. To praise him. To thank Him. To turn my mind and attention to Him, as often as possible. He wants me to live my life with the posture of my heart to be one of worship. This is one of the powerful ways we can seek the Kingdom of God, by worshiping the King.
Journal Prompts
Answer only the questions that seem relevant to you today.
For you, what does it mean to worship?
How would you describe the general posture of your heart?
How can you worship God in spirit?
How can you worship God in truth?
How can you be authentic with God as you turn your mind and attention to Him?