True worship

Scripture to consider: 1 Corinthians 11:20-34; 1 Corinthians 14:26-40; Luke 22:14-20; Acts 2:42; Acts 20:7; 1 Peter 2:5; John 4:23-24

3. We were created to worship, and Jesus Christ is the one who is truly worthy of all our worship. Part of our worship is remembering the Lord together regularly, as He commanded. The example from Scripture seems to be each week, not as part of a ritual, but as a part of real worship.

Worship is proclaiming the worth of the Lord Jesus Christ, remembering what He has done for us, thanking God and praising Him for His love, grace and mercy. Worship comes through self-examination and partaking in the symbols of the bread and wine, through prayer, singing, testimony, thanks and praise, and the reading of Scripture.

True worship involves a life that reflects the things  we say and sing. Can we truly sing, "How great thou art" if our lives are caught up in ourselves, what we desire, and do not follow the principles of God's Word? The Bible puts worship and service hand in hand. If we love the Lord, we will serve Him not just with our lips, but with our hands, our hearts, every day showing evidence of what God is worth to us. Is this what we call worship, or have we stuck it in a bulletin and relegated worship to congregational singing? 


A brother writes concerning  "true  worship":

There are many men who draw a distinct line between thanksgiving and worship, but God’s Word says that His attributes are understood by what He has made (Rom 1:20) and the heavens declare His glory (Ps 19:1). We know the love of God because He tells us, yes, but primarily because He has demonstrated it to us through His Son (Rom 5:8).

God is certainly worthy to be praised for who He is, but it is by looking at all He has done for me that I am overwhelmed by my unworthiness and thus drawn to worship Him - because of His grace and mercy. I do not need to wax eloquent in my words to worship God. Worship is not some fuzzy feeling I get when a big crowd of Christians gathers to sing praise choruses.

For me, worship is simply looking at who God is and all He has done, and saying that He is worthy of all my thanks and praise. Even more than that, He is worthy of my whole life handed over to serve and follow Him. My words of worship are hypocrisy if they do not match my actions of worship, laying my life on the altar for Him, placing His will above mine in everything I do.

To paraphrase James (2:18), “show me your worship without works, and I will show you my worship by my works.” Presenting my body a living sacrifice is my reasonable, spiritual service of worship (Rom 12:1). My words should then serve only as a recounting of my life of worship.

We are the temple of the Holy Spirit, the very place of worship; so we offer up our bodies to His glory, because we are not our own, we have been bought with a price (1 Cor 6:19-20). Let our words and the songs we sing not ring hollow when held up to our lives for comparison. God seeks for those who worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:23), and our words are empty without the evidence of true worship in our lives.

Are we not trampling God’s courts by bringing empty sacrifices of praise on Sunday mornings (Isa 1:11-12)? Far better is worship expressed by obedience in our lives, and then expressed by our words (1 Sam 15:22).