WORSHIP
Keeping it SimpleIf the purpose of our worship is to glorify, honor, praise, exalt, and please God. Our worship must show our adoration and loyalty to God. Jesus says in the book of John "God is Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." The word "must" makes it absolute. There is no other way we can worship God and be acceptable to Him. The word "must", according to Webster, expresses "an obligation, a requirement, a necessity, a certainty, and something that must be done". When "must" is used it means that it is not optional. Here the word "must" is expressing that in spirit and in truth is the only way to acceptably worship God.
Worshipping God in spirit to me means that it must be done from the heart. Worshipping God in truth to me means that it must be done with an honest and sincere attitude. Worship is a time when we pay deep, sincere, awesome respect, love, and fear to the one who created us. Worship should cause us to reflect on the majesty and graciousness of God, contrasted to our own unworthiness. It is not God who needs our worship, but it is we who need to worship Him. Worship helps us develop a God-like and Christ-like character. When we worship God we begin to value what God values and gradually take on the characteristics and qualities of God. When we worship God we develop such traits as forgiveness, tenderness, justice, righteousness, purity, kindness, and love.
There is a worship that involves the spirit, and worship that involves the mind, and a worship that involves the body. There is a worship that is giving praise upward, a worship that is receiving instructions from above, and a worship that carries out instruction in the world around us. It is directed to God. It is expressed by the lips in praise and by the life in service. It is personal between the individual believer and God.
Worship involves our entire relationship with God: our words, our attitudes, and our actions. Our words may be normal conversation, songs or prayers. In any style of speaking, we can declare God’s praises and express our faith reliance on him. We are to worship wherever we go, doing all things to God’s glory, praying always, giving thanks always, never ceasing to be a temple of the Holy Spirit.
NOTE: See comment section for a theological prospective for this article
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Words Used for Worship
A brief glance at a good Bible concordance will reveal that there are a number of Greek and Hebrew words which are rendered ‘to worship’ or ‘worshiper.’ In the Scriptures, there are three pairs of words which underscore for us the three primary elements of true worship.
Humility. The most frequent word in both the Old and New Testaments is one which means to make obeisance, to bow down, to prostrate. The Hebrew word is shaha…, and the Greek word is proskuneo. Both words denote the act of bowing or prostrating oneself in submissiveness and reverence.
Reverence. Another pair of terms underscores the attitude of reverence. The Hebrew word is yare…, and the Greek term is sebomai. The idea of both the Greek and the Hebrew is that of fearing God. It is not so much the fear of terror and dread so much as it is the fear of wonder and awe at the majesty and greatness of the infinite God.
Service. The third pair of terms employed for worship in the Bible emphasizes service. The Hebrew term, abad, and its Greek counterpart, latreuo…, denotes the idea ‘to work, to labor, or to serve.’
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