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True Worship
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Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for
it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt
thou serve. - Matt. 4:10
When we talk about worship most people have about the same line of
thinking as the woman of Samaria in the fourth chapter of John. They
think of religious acts and ceremonies, or a certain place. They think
of prayer or attending a church service. They think of emotional
religious experiences or being awestruck by the grandeur and elegance of
a fancy church or sanctuary. Just like the woman of Samaria, they
worship they “know not what.” All these things are simply substitutes
for real worship.
The first definition of worship is to adore. To adore is “to love in the
highest degree; to regard with the utmost esteem, affection and
respect.” (Webster 1828) Webster also defines worship this way: “To
honor with extravagant love and extreme submission; …” This meaning is
also very clear in Matthew 22:36-40 when Jesus is dealing with a young
man who appears to be seeking God:
Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt LOVE the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first
and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love
thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and
the prophets. - Matt. 22:36-40
Worship is an expression of our highest love. If you
really love God you not only CAN worship Him, you WILL worship Him. Many
people try to find God’s favor without giving their heart to Him in
love. This is false worship. If you do not really love God then it is
impossible for you to truly worship Him, because true worship is an
expression of love. Most people do not really love God – they only look
at God as a means to get what they want. So they use religious acts,
ceremonies, and even sacrifices in an attempt to persuade God to give
them what they want. Their motive is selfish. They want God’s favor and
blessings on their life, but they want to buy it with their phony
worship.
God is not interested in that kind of worship. Read this passage of
Scripture from Isaiah 1 to see what God thinks of phony worship:
To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices
unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and
the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of
lambs, or of he goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath
required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain
oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths,
the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the
solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth:
they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread
forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many
prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make
you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease
to do evil; Isa. 1:11-16
God wants man to LOVE him. Jesus said that this is the
GREAT commandment. God wants our heart – not just our phony lip service.
He wants our heart – not JUST our labor, or our support of His work.
True worship will produce service, and it will be willing service, done
with a glad heart, because its motive is love.
We worship what we esteem and value most highly. Jesus said that where
our treasure is, there will our hearts be also. God wants to know that
He holds the first place in our hearts, thus the first commandment:
“Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”
So people worship what they love the most – and they lose themselves in
it. When you really love someone you forget about yourself. You lose
your will in theirs. You are more interested in their welfare than in
your own – unless you still love yourself more than you love them. If
our love for others can command such self-denial, how much more should
our love for God cause us to serve Him?
Public worship is important because it establishes in the minds of
others that we love God. It establishes our hearts also, because we have
made a public commitment and that tends to settle our hearts and minds
on the course of our lives. The husband and wife who hold hands in
public and make it plainly understood that they love one another and are
committed to one another are not usually the ones that the adulteress or
adulterer will go after. So it is with public worship of God – when we
make it plain to others that we love God it sends a message to all the
people and all the devils that would try to pull our hearts away from
God. It separates us from the world, which is another subject to deal
with.
But private worship is also very important to the child of God. There
must be private times of intimacy with God. This is not a time when you
light candles and count beads. True worship is simply losing yourself in
loving God. True worship is not begging God for all your needs. True
worship is when you just sit still and adore and praise God from a
sincere heart. Abraham’s servant stopped everything, bowed his head and
worshipped God when he saw that God had led him to Rebecca. You aren’t
worshipping God as long as your mind is occupied with other things. You
have to come apart from the world and the cares of life to truly worship
God. It is a wonderful thing that we have this privilege and ability to
worship God this way. It is a place where there are no cares of life.
There are no dangers or troubles. You can forget all those when you are
truly worshipping God. True worship is when you just lose yourself in
his glory and goodness. It is when you are focused on the wonder of an
Almighty God who is without fault and who is totally good in every way.
Another wonderful thing about true worship is that it is not just a
one-way thing. When we truly worship God He loves us back. God responds
to true worship – “The Father seeketh such to worship him.” (John
4:23) True worship is what God made us for. God is love and he made
man to bestow his love upon. True worship makes this a reality for us
because God reaches into our hearts and touches us. That is sure better
than counting beads and lighting candles! This is sure better than
serving God out of duty or with the blind hope of gaining his favor
because of our good deeds and labor!
Do you truly worship God? Have you worshipped Him today? You have to
truly love God before you can truly worship Him. You can’t help but love
Him when you know Him. You know Him through his Word – the Bible. Seek
Him with all your HEART and you will find Him. When you find Him you
will love Him. Then you can know what true worship is all about.
Mike Miller
10/23/2005
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