Worship

Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth. (John 4:23-24)

I give the Lord all the honor, praise and glory firstly for He is the master and creator of us all and it is through His Spirit that enables us to do good things.

I pray that as I write this that the Holy Spirit may guide me and give me the words to encourage you, to raise you up as living sacrifices to worship the Lord God, creator of the universe. Be bold and strong, never giving up on yourself or your dreams that the Lord has given you. All glory to Him that sits on the throne forever and ever, Amen.

Where does one start on worship? The subject is endless as time itself. What is worship? Why do we worship? To what do we worship? Our English word means “worth ship” denoting the worthiness of an individual to receive special honor in accordance with that worth. (From Evangelical Dictionary of Theology by Walter a. Elwell.) The Greek word for worship is PROSKYNEO which means an act of prostration, to bow down, may be done out of regard for the dignity, out of reverence.

There are many aspects of “Worship”, some that we use everyday; adoration, prayer, surrender, repentance, seeking God, exaltation, celebrating, praise and rejoicing. In all of the aspects of worship we have one basic common idea. It is communication. Also it is a doing word; we choose to do something to communicate to God. Like prayer we choose to do this to know our Lord better, to show our love, thankfulness, joy, respect, to give ourselves as an offering.

I will give thanks to the LORD because of his righteousness and will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High. (Psalm 7:17)

I will praise you, O LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonders. I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High. (Psalm 9:1-2)

Therefore I will praise you among the nations, O LORD; I will sing praises to your name. (Psalm 18:49)

David is expressing his desire to worship the Lord and telling people of the great things that the Lord has done. So much of David’s worship shows his heart towards the Lord; the way His deep love has touched his heart and his innermost being.

This is one of the ways we can have fellowship with our creator, to come to a point of making a response of love to our God. With our heart we can express our love, praise and adoration to God with a good attitude acknowledging His kingship and supremacy. We should not be ashamed of pouring out ourselves to our Lord and maker as we would not be ashamed to show affection to someone we love eg; wife, husband, girlfriend, boyfriend. Worshipping is our response with God’s spirit in us, extravagantly, extremely, obeying the desires from our hearts and flowing with love.

…so that the Gentiles may glorify God for his mercy, as it is written:

“Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles; I will sing hymns to your name.” Again, it says, “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.” And again, “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and sing praises to him, all you peoples.” And again, Isaiah says, “The Root of Jesse will spring up, one who will arise to rule over the nations; the Gentiles will hope in him.” May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:9-13)

I shall be mainly talking about Worship as singing, celebrating, praise and rejoicing in our own congregations, churches, within a group or leading a group.

Over the years I have been to many churches and denominations in Australia and overseas, most of which I had been involved in the band or worship team in one-way or another. Although each one was a little different in certain rituals, the worship has remained the same, in that we all worship the One and true God.

There is no one-way to worship our Lord. In a sense for example I am worshiping the Lord now as I write this. I am expressing my love for Him, all the wonders, grace, mercy He has shown me, thanking Him, worshiping in words.
King David was fantastic at worshiping with words and a lot of the songs we sing and listen to have started with a one on one personal encounter with our Lord Jesus Christ, and then are written down to remember and to repeat as a vocal expression that we know as singing.

“My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and make music. Awake, my soul! Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn. I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples. For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches to the skies. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; Let your glory be over the earth.” (Psalm 57:7-11)

What a fantastic thought; David overjoyed with emotion to love and praise his creator, his king, his friend, his brother. Exclaiming greatness and power to someone he knows really well, to someone he is in love with. This is true worship in every sense. David is using his whole being to convey what he feels to the Lord.

The idea that David had to write down what he feels right or wrong, it is a great idea. Many songs that we hear today, Christian and non-Christian, reflect people’s thoughts and emotions. The themes vary on people, places, feelings and emotions. A song is never the same. One would tend to think that there would be a limit to what one can write or sing on, but this isn’t the case. There are no two people in the world the same; therefore the same can be said about songs and music. Each one is different and never the same.

Worship works in the same way. The theme is Jesus Christ. Within songs there are many ways to write about Him, and there are many different ways to worship Him.