Worshipping the Lord our God
Everybody worships. It is the very core of our being. The theme of worship is repeated hundreds of times in both the Old Testament and the New Testament of the Holy Bible – from Genesis to the end of Revelation. What does it mean to worship? It simply means giving honor and homage to a superior being. In the Biblical passages, the word worship is not used as a holy word because it refers to the honor and reverence given not only to God, but also to idols and material things as well. In the Christian context, however, the word worship is used only to mean giving honor and homage or reverence to the one and the only true living God. It is what goes up from us to God – the giving of ourselves, our attitudes, our possessions to God. In Matthew 4:10, Jesus said: “Worship the Lord your God and serve only Him.” The most meaningful New Testament passage on worship is found in John 4:20-24 on the conversation of Jesus with a woman from Samaria. The woman said: “Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers, the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth.” This Biblical passage very clearly defines how to worship God in the proper way – in spirit and in truth. As a spirit, God cannot be confined to a place or restricted as to time. God likewise cannot be reduced to an image or idol or picture, confined to a specific place or time – made with human hands out of gold, silver, wood, brass, clay, or any other earthly substance. Nowhere in the Bible in either the Old or New Testament is there a description of Christ’s physical features. No picture of Christ was ever painted during His earthly ministry. Whatever pictures are there of Christ are merely the product of the artists’ imagination. There are today so many pictures and images of Christ portraying different physical features – despite the fact that nothing is known about His physical features except that He was of Jewish nationality. All these attempts to portray His deity cannot do justice to God’s personality. The dilemma is very well captured in Isaiah 4:18 which states: “To whom, then, will you compare God? What image will you compare Him to?” How can one worship in spirit? Worship in spirit does not refer to external sacrifices. It refers basically to our inner self – the human spirit. For a spiritual worship to be meaningful then, it is what is on the inside that counts... not the right clothes, right sermon, right music, or right mood. The music, the sermon are not the end in themselves but are just the stimuli to create the desire in our hearts to worship God. True spiritual worship pleasing to God is a worship that honors and glorifies God because He is in our life every day. Hebrews 13:15-16 tells us: “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise – the fruit of lips that confess His name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” How prepared are you to worship God? Hebrews 10:22 of the New Testament states: “Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.” Simply put, if there is sin in your life, confess it first. Sins of unforgiveness, of anger, of bitterness, of vindictiveness, of jealousy are barriers to true worship. Remember King David? The Bible says that he committed adultery with Bathsheba and had Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, murdered. Later, after King David learned of the death of his child with Bathsheba, he poured out his heart to God in repentance. This is an example of worship of repentance. In another moving case, Job, a man who feared God, lost everything including his children and possessions. Despite this crisis in his life, Job demonstrated his faith and love of God by continuing to worship God. The Bible records the touching statement of Job: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked will I depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised” (Job 1:20-21). Worship by acceptance typified by Job simply means to be resigned to accept the circumstances God has brought in one’s life and being able to worship God in the midst of all the crisis without any bitterness. Another kind of worship is worship by devotion which is best illustrated by Abraham when in response to God’s order, he took his son Isaac to one of the mountains in the region of Moriah to be sacrificed as a burnt offering. Is worshipping God a priority in your life? How much of your time is spent in worshipping God? Are you worshipping God in the manner specifically established in the Holy Bible?
If this article will succeed to create a consuming desire in your heart to study the Scriptural passages on worship and to inspire you to worship God in the manner established in the Holy Bible, then it would have achieved its purpose. This column continues to give out copies of the Holy Bible for free to those who cannot afford to buy their own copies. If interested, please send your letter-request to Ms. Nelly Favis Villafuerte, 5233 Fahrenheit St., Palanan, Makati City. Kindly mention if it is the Tagalog, English, Cebuano, or Ilocano Bible that is preferred.
Be joyful and forgiving!
(Comments may be sent to Ms. Villafuerte’s email: villafuerte_nelly@ yahoo.com.)