The Proper Worship of God Part 2 - Worshiping in Spirit

Our Heavenly Father commands and deserves proper worship from His children, and tells us how He wants us to worship Him.  The diligent follower of Christ knows that God requires that He be worshiped in spirit and in truth (John 4:23-24).  Worshiping God "in spirit" means that we worship Him with reverence, attentiveness, and having the right purpose of honoring God, while understanding exactly what it is that we are doing.

We are told in Scripture that we need to worship the Lord with reverence and awe (Hebrews 12:28), and that our worship must glorify God.  Glorifying God is an essential part of worship; "For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body." (1Corinthians 6:20).  King David, whom the Lord considered to be a man after His own heart (1Samuel 13:14) knew that worship is meant to glorify God; "All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; And they shall glorify thy name" (Psalm 86:9).

In order to worship God in the right spirit, we must take time before worship to make ready our hearts so that we will be in the proper frame of mind.  The psalmist tells us that "God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about Him" (Psalm 89:7).  Our worship must show great reverence toward God.  We should not put ourselves in a position of having to rush to worship, hurrying to not arrive late.  Instead, we should plan to arrive early, so that we can be in the proper frame of mind; ready, attentive, focused, and alert.

When it comes to the Lord's supper; we are warned that "whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord" (1Corinthians 11:27). Our worship of the Lord must be done in a manner worthy of Him; it must bring honor and glory to God and Christ.

What does Scripture say about unworthy worship?  "For he that eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body" (1Corinthians 11:29).  We must control our thoughts during worship, and not allow our minds to wander.  We should never put ourselves in the position of wishing the service was over, waiting impatiently for the spiritual meal to end so we can satisfy fleshly hunger.  We rightly should be of the mindset that we are disappointed to see the worship service end.

As we show reverence and respect to God our Father, we cannot be indifferent, inattentive, and disrespectful, taking lightly that which is serious.  Worship to God is holy, and our character in worship must also be holy: "like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, 'you shall be holy, for I am holy' " (1Peter 1:15-16).  Slouching, playing, reading, daydreaming, squirming, whispering, passing notes, sleeping (!) all are disrespectful to God during worship.

Worship that is insincere and not from the heart is vain, useless, and unacceptable to God.  Jesus speaks of people who worship this way; "This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me.  But in vain do they worship me..." (Mark 5:6-7)  Active participation in worship will tend to rid us of our inattentiveness and lack of interest.

Do not misunderstand; reverence is not sitting with hands clasped, brow furrowed in concentration, with a look of piety on your face.  Reverence is willingly, earnestly, happily, joyously, gratefully obeying and worshiping the Lord.  Reverential worship is offering thanks, adoration, love, prayer, and songs of praise to God, feeding hungrily on His word, and proclaiming Christ and His atoning sacrifice as we partake in the Lord's supper.  That is the proper spirit of worship.