Hello
What does it mean to worship God?
According to my dictionary, worship is “the feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity”. However, the word usually translated “worship” in the New Testament meant something else. It meant to physically prostrate yourself (lie face down on the ground) in front of another person to acknowledge their superiority and authority. The word was used by the devil when asking Jesus to worship him, and also by Jesus in his reply “You will worship the Lord your God and serve him alone.” (Luke 4:7-8). The same word is used to describe people asking Jesus for healing; a leper (Matthew 8:2) and a mother whose daughter was possessed by a demon (Matthew 15:25). It is also used to describe the sons of Zebedee and their mother prostrating themselves before Jesus when they wanted to ask a special favor (Matthew 20:20), and the disciples meeting Jesus in Galilee after his resurrection (Matthew 28:17).
So, should we physically prostrate ourselves when we worship God? Well, it’s the attitude of our hearts that is important to God (1 Samuel 16:7). So our physical attitude may not be important. But sometimes it does feel right to bow, kneel or even prostrate ourselves before God. At those times, I say, do it.
Worshiping God “in spirit and in truth”.
In Jesus’ conversation with the woman at the well he said:
“…the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23-24)
What does it mean to worship God in spirit and in truth?
Our spirit is our innermost being – our heart. So, prostrating ourselves before God, should be the attitude of our hearts when we worship him. The attitude of our hearts should be gratefully acknowledging his total superiority, authority, and his unending love. (It seems, to me, that this makes worship a very personal time with God.)
And Truth? Truth is honesty. So, worshiping God “in truth” may mean being completely honest with him. God certainly wants us to be truthful with him when we worship him and whenever we pray.
So, the word “worship” carried a very different meaning, in Jesus’ day, to the way we use it today when we talk about worship in our church services.
Worshiping in church services.
Should worship be spontaneous? Can it be honest and truthful if it is not spontaneous? Can we be worshiping in spirit and truth if we are repeating songs and prayers that we have used many times before? On the personal level, I think, sometimes, it can. We can truly worship God while singing songs we’ve known all our lives. It is, however, the attitude of our hearts towards God that makes those words true worship – not the words themselves. Singing familiar songs, or saying familiar prayers, is not necessarily true worship.
Can we be worshiping God “in spirit and in truth” if that worship is carefully designed, arranged and rehearsed? It’s a good question. For me, the answer is probably “No”. But I can’t speak for others.
True worship is an attitude of the heart. Jesus tells his followers to be like little children. Little children do not carefully prepare what they have to say to their loving parents. And, when we want to thank someone sincerely, we don’t make a ritual out of it. We don’t carefully prepare the words we are going to say – or, at least, it’s probably not a good idea if we want to sound sincere. Nonetheless, there can be no doubt that millions of Christians around the world find that reading and or saying prepared words, prayers that are sometimes hundreds of years old, are a true form of worship. I can’t argue with that. I, personally, do find words in some ancient hymns and prayers that reflect the prayers of my own heart. But worshiping God must come from our hearts. At all costs we must not allow prepared words to become the “empty phrases” that Jesus warned against (Matthew 6:7-8).
May our loving, heavenly Father bless us and keep us safe as we worship him.
Jesus is Lord.
Peter O
Related articles
Do we follow the teachings of Jesus in our church services?
What did Jesus say about church?
What did Jesus say about prayer?
What did Jesus say about prayer? (Part 2)
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Worship hey, I thought it was feeding the poor, loving the lonely and broken, helping the sick, the kind of things christians are supposed to do as evidence of “fruit”. Platitudes and emotional feel good worship seems almost self centred in the modern church. I am obviously not a pastor, anyone anybody should notice.
As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
— Luke 10:38–42
I’m a pastor in a tradition which often utilizes a “pastoral prayer” in the worship service. We sometimes view this as one of our ‘priestly’ functions during which we are coming before the Lord on behalf of the people. Because of that, I’ve always felt that not only what I say but also, *to a degree,* how I say it has an affect on peoples’ ability to hear and receive my words their own, and so to be able to say “Amen” at the conclusion. At times, I’ve struggled with whether or not I should write my pastoral prayer ahead of time, or if I should “rely on the Spirit” with an extemporaneous prayer. Here’s what I’ve come to learn about myself: 1) generally speaking, God has wired me in such a way that my thoughts come to me slowly. In my personal prayer life, there’s way more silence between words then there are words; my “sentences” are broken and hilted (if written out, there’d be a lot of ellipses!) I also know that it’s easy for me to “lose” common, everyday words while I’m talking. (I don’t think it’s a medical condition.) I’m very aware of this aspect of myself, and I believe that were I to pray that way during my pastoral prayer, it would likely result in people feeling very uncomfortable. 2) When I’m writing my pastoral prayer ahead of time, I’m actively listening to the Holy Spirit for the words to say. A person can be just as inspired by the Spirit the day before corporate worship as during worship. With this in mind, I would challenge your supposition that “if it comes from the heart it will not be carefully prepared.” Along that same line of thought, I’ve composed many thank you notes through the years which came from the heart but took a while to write because I wanted to express exactly what I was feeling. Now, with that said, I would agree that repeating ‘rote’ prayers, including the Lord’s Prayer, can be challenging to say without being on auto pilot. Even for us clergy!
Hello Brother Drew
Sincere thanks for your very thoughtful comment. God has been reminding me recently that, as a good parent, he knows his individual children have different needs, different thoughts, different talents and different ways of learning. Your words are a reminder to me that we are all different and that he leads us along different paths. I acknowledge that my words “if it comes from the heart it will not be carefully prepared” are my words and not found in Jesus’ teaching. I’ve been thinking about this post recently and I will re-visit it in the light of your comment.
Thanks again.
God bless you in everything you do for him.
Peter O
This article was edited in response to Brother Drew’s comments on 20 August 2021.
I agreed with “if it comes from the heart it will not be carefully prepared” because I believe you were referring to our personal conversation with God . God know our words before we were spoken , so that is no need to ” carefully prepare ” what we want to say to God. However, in brother’s Drew’s situation, I believe he was referring on his experience as a pastor who wants to make himself clear in front of many audiences, so ” carefully Prepare ” is necessary.
Dear brother peter, thank you again.
HI Drew,
Thank you for your comments. Here are a few verses that help me;
Proverbs 15:23,26,28 NKJV
A man has joy by the answer of his mouth, And a word spoken in due season, how good it is! [26] The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the LORD, But the words of the pure are pleasant. [28] The heart of the righteous studies how to answer, But the mouth of the wicked pours forth evil.
May all glory go to the Father which gave us His Word.
Blessings in Christ