Worth Worshiping?

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

She is so beautiful. Have you seen her eyes? And when she laughs, her nose crinkles up in just the cutest way. The other day we were in the grocery store and I was just watching her picking up apples and…”

“Sounds to me like she’s got you wrapped around her little finger. Didn’t you blow off the game with the guys the other night? Can you think of anything else but her? You know you might be losing a few friends over this girl?”

“Yeah, but she’s so worth it.” Can you remember back to that swept away feeling? He’s all you could think about. It’s as if you had her up on a pedestal. Sounds a little like…worshipping, doesn’t it?

What is the real source of our worship? Jesus knew that the source was our hearts, so he focused a lot of his teachings there. Our hearts must first be tuned into who Jesus is, and what it means to worship Him. It’s not about just studying Him; garnering facts, history, and ideas—although these can be very important. It’s about worshipping Him.

And we cannot worship from the outside-in. Think about it. Don’t we normally view church and worship as us getting something; getting “fed” spiritually, receiving spiritual energy, renewal…whatever? Well, that’s a lot like shopping, even if it’s all good, spiritual stuff we’re after. We pick and choose what we want. We “buy” only what we like.

This will not do. He’s God Almighty! Jesus is God! The Savior! He is worth worshipping. And He’s not your ordinary, run-of-the-mill god, you know.

“I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me…His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. Revelation 1:12-14.

Can you imagine encountering that, then casually blowing Him off until you needed Him, or the next time the music moved you?

To worship God, we must start from the inside: first pouring out our reverence, our awe, our wonder, our…adoration. Only then, can we approach with the right heart: set for true worship: our spirit pouring out to His Spirit, then His Spirit pouring back into us.

Can I get you to picture yourself on your way to church on Sunday morning? What’s going on in the car? Where’s your mind? My default is to have the radio on and my mind on…me. Maybe yours is on how much your kids are cutting up, or how much your wife/husband has aggravated you. If that’s the case, your mind is still on…you. In that case, we’re really settling our hearts into that worship mode, aren’t we?

We have two choices: worship God or worship ourselves. It’s really just that simple. Me, or Him. The truly rich Life in the Kingdom is to worship God, ignore ourselves, love people and use things. But most of us ignore God, worship ourselves, love things and use people. We can only truly worship when we are care nothing more than to first pour our hearts out to God, in awe and adoration, as He then pours His Spirit and Truth back in to us. Inside-out.