Know Your God (40)

Worship: a Divine Act

Worship is the feeling or expression of reverence and adoration. To show a lot of love and adoration for something. It’s an extreme form of love — a type of unquestioning devotion.

The church must understand the psychology of worship. Participation in worship impacts believers emotionally and psychologically. Although worship is corporate, it is made up of individual acts.

Worship in this instance is a return from a far country where one lives estranged. Worship is an encounter with the personal which awakens powers and transcendence within us. It is reverently entering into a life other than one’s own.

What does it mean to worship?

1. To offer reverence to a divine being or supernatural power.
2. To simply have a form of religious practice with its creed.
3. To have extravagant respect or admiration for or devotion.

We also need to know that true worship is based on a right understanding of God’s nature, and it is a right valuing of God’s worth.

If you worship God, then you love God, so much so, that you don’t question him will.

Forms of Worship

Liturgical worship: This involves worshiping that is carried out in a public setting, generally during a church service.

Non-liturgical worship: This sort of worship is informal, with less structure. The different parts of the service can be changed for special events. For example, the sermon can be the main part of the service. Prayers can be in the service leader’s own words and maybe totally unscripted, rather than being read from a book.

Informal worship. – Focuses on the adoration of God and can take place outside a church. Informal worship services often attract hundreds of people and maybe held in large auditoriums. The music used during informal worship is popular and modern in style, and often involves instruments.

Private worship. – This is worship given to God by one person (or family) while he is alone. The most common way for a person to worship privately is by praying or reading the scriptures.

Essential Reasons Why Worship Matters

Worships Involves Surrender of Our Lives- (Romans 3:23) for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We must understand the need to allow God to dictate the happenings in our life

Worship Is Putting Our Focus on Him – True worship is based on the desire to honor God. It requires a personal revelation of God as found in the Scriptures.

Worship Involves ‘Getting Out of the Way’ – It’s letting go. Sometimes, we get in the way of our own experience of genuine worship.

Worship Involves Personal Sacrifice – Worship requires a sacrifice of our feelings and fears so we can give Him the focus He deserves.

We must worship in the face of pain & loss – It is so important that in times of pain and loss, we move toward God rather than away from Him. King David demonstrated what it means to worship in the face of loss and pain. He stayed true to his maker despite the death of his child.

Worship is celebrating who God is and what He has done- Our God created heaven and earth, there is nothing bigger than that. We must understand that he is above all and deserves to be adored.

Psychological Views on Worship

As the focal point of a congregation or persons, worship should make major contributions to the growth and wholeness of persons.

The person who brings a wounded spirit into the setting of worship often finds it difficult to enter into the experience of worship. Paradoxically, it is the very act of worship that offers healing for those wounds, even though the pain may hinder the hurting Christian’s full participation in it

The renewal of worship in our era is largely concerned with the restoration of a God-centered focus in Christian celebration. By its very nature, however, the psychology of worship tends to reverse this focus, redirecting our concern to the worshiper and his or her needs. Worship in this instance celebrates the victory of Christ over authorities that place people in bondage.

One of the major mental health values of worship is as a feeding experience. Every person needs periodic replenishing of his inner resources. Regular intake experiences are required to balance the outgo. Intake experiences are those in which one feels loved, cared for, esteemed, and fed through the stimulation of ideas, music, inspiration, relationships, and the pleasures of the senses. Worship is a major means of overcoming inner emptiness through the rich experience of psychological feeding.

Worship brings the awareness that it is in self-giving that one receives the finest satisfactions of life. The giving aspects of a worship service include the outpouring of adoration to God, intercessory prayers (symbolizing outreaching concern for others), the offering (which is a symbolic giving of a portion of one’s working life), and the acts of personal dedication.

The purpose of worship is the achievement of emotional health and spiritual wholeness in the form of relief from destructive anxiety employing celebration of God’s grace. Worship involves humans in two ways. It is our act of Christian relationship to each other and it is our experience and expression of celebrating God’s nature and behaviour. Typical worship reinforces pathologies of anxiety and self-deception. Genuine worship will heal humans of overriding guilt, crippling shame, and severe anxiety. That is the purpose of worship in God’s kingdom.

Biblical References on Worship as a Divine Act And Instruction

Worshiping God in Spirit and in truth – (John 4:23-24)

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

Many people pretend that they are worshipping God; however, the Lord sees their hearts and minds. True worship is accepted by God from those who are a part of the body of Christ and live truthful lives. When we are honest with the Lord to confess our sins, we are purified to worship Him in Spirit and in truth which is what God expects us to do.

Worshiping God with our life – (Romans 12:1)

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship” (Romans 12:1).

As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we sacrifice our lives daily for His purposes and plans—not our selfish motives. We are taking up our cross every day and trusting in the Lord to lead us in the right direction. Our continual sacrifice is an offering of worship to Him out of gratefulness for the things He has done. A typical example, in this case, is King Solomon whose life demonstrates the attitude of worship.

Worshiping only God – (Luke 4:8)

“Jesus answered, ‘it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only’” (Luke 4:8).

It’s tempting for every person to worship someone or something other than the Lord. We worship our money, recreation, jobs, homes, and other material things. We may not bow down to them physically, but we can emotionally pay homage to earthly things over God. The Lord desires all worship to be firmly directed towards Him and nothing else.

Many people are worshipping gods that have no power to save them and no unconditional love to draw them. As believers, we must press our way to worship God regularly with no excuses. One day we will stand in the assembly of saints and angels to worship Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Now is the time to start preparing to worship Him in preparation for our heavenly dwelling place.

Conclusively, the inner essence of worship is to know God truly and then respond from the heart to that knowledge by valuing God, treasuring God, enjoying God, being satisfied with God above all earthly things. And then that deep, restful, joyful satisfaction in God overflows in demonstrable acts of praise from the lips and demonstrable acts of love in serving others for the sake of Christ.