Worship. Chances are, you usually hear that word in the context of song worship. What does it actually mean though? The dictionary tells me it is “the expression of reverence and adoration for a deity.” As such, what does it mean to worship, to truly express reverence and adoration for God? The answer to the latter question is found in the prayer known as ‘The Shema’, recorded in Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (ESV), “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”

There can be many expressions of this love, but it is this all-consuming love for God that is the core foundation of worship.

Pedro Arrupe wrote: “Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, than falling in love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, who you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.”

At the heart of worship is genuine love and reverence. This is why, when the woman at the well seemed to be more concerned about the location for worship, likely based on historical reasons, Jesus replied, “Believe me woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. But a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such as these to worship Him. God is Spirit, and His worshipers must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:21-24, BSB).

The key points in Jesus response were that the focal issue was not the location of the worshipper. It was primarily about knowing God and worshipping Him in Spirit and in truth. Jesus points out that this is a must. In other words, there is no other way to truly worship God. Jesus also goes on to say that the Father is seeking such worshippers, that means God is keenly and actively looking out for such worshippers. I once heard this saying, “worship is an invitation that God cannot refuse.”

Worshipping God in Spirit and truth involves knowing the truth of who He is, and this can be revealed to us by His Word (John 1, John 5:39) and by the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 2:10-13 (NLT) says, “But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets. No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us. When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths.” Philippians 3:3 (NLT) further buttresses this, “For we who worship by the Spirit of God are the ones who are truly circumcised. We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us. We put no confidence in human effort.”

We cannot truly worship God without getting to know who He is and just what He is capable of. For how can you truly love, reverence and adore a being without having at least some knowledge of that being. As finite beings, we cannot fully know an infinite God, but we can develop in our knowledge of Him. Indeed it is as we get to know Him better that we are in a sense compelled to worship Him from our hearts. Not because we are forced to, but because we cannot help doing so in response to what we know. We read this kind of reaction in Psalm 95:3-7 (BSB).

“For the LORD is a great God, a great King above all gods.
In His hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to Him.
The sea is His, for He made it, and His hands formed the dry land.
O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.
For He is our God,
and we are the people of His pasture, the sheep under His care.”

The Psalmist first acknowledges who God is by revealing what He knows about God, and then this knowledge naturally incites a call to worship. I was recently re-reading ‘The Magician’s Nephew’ by C.S. Lewis with my kids, and came across a similar reaction by the Cabby when Aslan was creating the new world of Narnia. As Aslan sang, Narnia was springing to life…

“Then two wonders happened at the same moment. One was that the voice was suddenly joined by other voices; more voices than you could possibly count. They were in harmony with it, but far higher up the scale: cold, tingling, silvery voices. The second wonder was that the blackness overhead, all at once, was blazing with stars. They didn’t come out gently one by one, as they do on a summer evening. One moment there had been nothing but darkness; next moment a thousand, thousand points of light leaped out – single stars, constellations, and planets, brighter and bigger than any in our world. There were no clouds. The new stars and the new voices began at exactly the same time. If you had seen and heard it , as Digory did, you would have felt quite certain that it was the stars themselves who were singing, and that it was the First Voice, the deep one, which had made them appear and made them sing.
‘Glory be!’ said the Cabby. ‘I’d ha’ been a better man all my life if I’d known there were things like this.’”

As I read the book, I smiled at the Cabby’s reaction, but also realised the immense impact worship can have on us. If we indeed worship God in spirit and truth, it won’t merely be a case of being overcome after a period of singing some songs on a Sunday morning, as important as that is. Rather, true worship will have a profound impact on how we live our lives. It will necessitate a complete lifestyle overhaul for the better, becoming our sole purpose, our raison d’etre.

In Jeremiah 32:39-41 (NLT), God says, “And I will give them one heart and one purpose: to worship me forever, for their own good and for the good of all their descendants. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good for them. I will put a desire in their hearts to worship me, and they will never leave me. I will find joy doing good for them and will faithfully and wholeheartedly replant them in this land.”

You might wonder if you are truly capable of worshipping, if you are capable of devoting your time and mind to focusing on God, on who He is, on His mighty works. To that, I will ask a simple question, have you ever worried about something before? If you have, then you are capable of worship. For worry is indeed a form of worship, just in the wrong direction. As such, if you are someone who is a worrier or an anxious person, you have the potential to be a good worshipper, if you change the direction and focus of your ‘worship’. Why? Because when we worry, our focus is primarily on our problems. Our minds, our bodies, our thoughts become consumed by that problem as we continuously dwell on it. It is like worship, but concentrated on the wrong object, almost as if we were worshipping our problems. However when we worship God, when we “turn our eyes upon Jesus and look full in His wonderful face”, we are drawn to Him and reminded of His love, His glory, His power. As the hymnwriter notes, when we do this, those worries “will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.”

As we think about this and try to determine whether we are true worshippers, it may help to answer the question, ‘who or what has your heart?’ In other words, what do you desire above all else? When you have some alone time, what do you want to do with it? Whose approval are you eager for? As Galatians 1:10 (ESV) notes, “For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.”

God does not just want part of our heart or part of our life, or the leftover scraps of our time, after we have done everything else. He wants our whole life. In the era of the Old Testament, animals were given as offerings to God, and they had to be perfect, no defects. “If you present a gift as a burnt offering to the Lord, whether it is to fulfil a vow or is a voluntary offering, you will be accepted only if your offering is a male animal with no defects. It may be a bull, a ram, or a male goat. Do not present an animal with defects, because the Lord will not accept it on your behalf. “If you present a peace offering to the Lord from the herd or the flock, whether it is to fulfil a vow or is a voluntary offering, you must offer a perfect animal. It may have no defect of any kind” (Leviticus 22:18b-21, NLT).

When we worship God, and this includes song worship, is it perfectly, wholly from the heart, for God’s glory, or is it blemished by self-interest? Am I worshipping God so that He will give me something in return, or am I worshipping Him because He is God? Because really, that is more than enough reason to worship Him.

One way I can deduce the answer to that question is by searching my heart and examining my actions, in order to determine whether my worship of God fluctuates in line with how things are going in my life. I wrote a blog post titled ‘About praise and its returns’ way back in 2016, and I’ll include a quote from that post here: “Praise should be an expression of love, an acknowledgement of who God is, a beautiful feature of our relationship with God, unsullied by manipulative tendencies. It should come straight from the heart, going directly to the Heavens, not stopping along the way to pick up our material wants and desires as attached conditions.”

Ultimately, worship is a choice, and for it to really become a lifestyle, we have to be unapologetically intentional about it. If we are not yet true God worshippers, it is never too late to make that choice. Furthermore, the reasons why we should do so are all around us. Habakkuk once prophesied about the entire earth coming to this knowledge, in Habakkuk 2:14 (AMP): “But [the time is coming when] the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, As the waters cover the sea.” Indeed, even now, we know that this is already in manifestation. “The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship” (Psalm 19:1, NLT). “For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God” (Romans 1:20, NLT).

One encounter with Jesus, The Word made flesh, was enough to transform Paul from a persecutor to a worshipper. That transformation completely changed the entire trajectory of Paul’s life. His life subsequently became a libation poured out to God. In 2 Timothy 4:6-7 (NLT), Paul said, “As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God. The time of my death is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful.”

At the end of the day, can we say the same, that our lives are a sweet smelling, pleasing aroma, a Christ-like fragrance to God? (2 Corinthians 2:15). Can we say that we have truly poured out our lives in worship to Him? Our whole lives, not just our Sunday lives?

One day, I want to be able to answer yes to that question. But for now, I will admit that I am still on that journey. I don’t always get it right, but by God’s grace, I am pouring and determined to continue pouring out more and more of my life as a worship offering to Him, until there is not one single drop left. To not just say God is my priority, but to act like He is indeed my priority. To worship Him in my ministry, my parenting, my relationships with people, my writing, my career, in every aspect of my life, with all that He has given me, wholly and passionately. I know full well that I cannot do this without the Spirit of God. As such, I want to become so soaked in and with God’s Spirit, that I can’t help dripping with His fruit in any situation, no matter how challenging, and to whoever I come across, no matter who they are or how they act, so help me God!

As we reflect on these words, I pray that we will make a choice to know and worship God the way He deserves to be worshipped, with all our heart, our soul, our might, with our all, because He is our all in all. May that worship rise up to God as a sweet smelling savour, one which will please Him and bring Him immense joy, and make Him say at the end, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant”.

Image source here (By Artist Lance Brown).