REAL WORSHIP

 

REAL WORSHIP

John 4:23-24 "But the time is coming and is already here when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for anyone who will worship him that way." NLT

It is one thing to worship God in truth, it's another thing to do it in spirit. Most of you who read these words have a fairly good grasp of the truth. We may vary on some details, but essentially we are in agreement. We rally around the cross and Jesus' sacrificial death for our sins. We strive to understand the Scriptures through study and meditation so that we can better apply it to our lives. We do a fairly good job of grasping what God wants us to know about life and ourselves.

Where we really seem to struggle the most with is the spirit. Much of what we do in worship is routine. We vary how we express ourselves in worship, but we often go through the motions of what we do. We stay within the perimeters of our comfort zones. We do the same things so often that we can be a thousand miles away in our minds even while we "worship the Lord."

Seldom do we prepare ourselves for entering into God's presence. There is so much activity going on in most churches before the actual time for the worship service to begin that there is very little actual reflection on God. We energize our services to the point where we don't allow space or time for God to draw near. We act as if we have to draw God's attention to us. We act like the prophets of Baal did on Mt. Carmel. We forget that in the Scriptures when God spoke, it most often was in the quietness.

I wonder how much true worshiping actually goes on in the Church today. When was the last time you can honestly say that you worshiped the Lord in spirit as well as in truth?