It
is important to know that God wants all of you. He asks for all your heart, all
your soul, all of your mind and all of your strength.
God
is not interested in halfhearted commitment, partial obedience and the left over’s
of your time and money. He deserves all your devotions. The question is “How
much of yourself do you offer God when you worship”? Hebrew 12:28
4 Characteristics of
Worship
1. God is pleased
when our worship is based on the truth of scriptures. Worship must be based on
the truth of scriptures;
“True worshipers
worship God in the spirit and in truth”. John 4: 23
Worshiping in truth
is to worship God as He is truly revealed in the Bible.
Worshiping in the
spirit is to ensure that your spirit is involved in worship. Worship is your spirit
responding to God’s spirit.
Worship must be
genuine and heartfelt. Heartless praise is worthless praise because when we
worship, God looks at our hearts.
Sincere worship must
involve our emotions as it must be deeply felt, that is involving our deep
feelings.
God is not interested
in showmanship or pretense when we worship.
Worship takes place
when your spirit responds to God not to the music because sometimes music takes
away the focus from God and puts it on ourselves.
2. God is pleased
when our worship is thoughtful. ‘Love God with all your mind”. What this means
is that God is not pleased with thoughtless singing.
If worship is
mindless, it is meaningless; you must engage your mind. Here are some tips that
will help you engage your mind
-
Use
of scriptures in praising God especially the Psalms.
-
Make
a list of the different names of God – they tell us of the different aspects of
His character. In the Old Testament, God revealed Himself to Isaac at different
times with new names. He therefore commands us to praise his name.
3.
God is pleased when, our worship is practical.
- The bible says
“offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable (pleasing to God),
this is your spiritual act of worship.
- He says offer your body, He did not say offer
your spirit.
Without your body,
you cannot do anything on earth. Everyone interacts with his environment with
his body. It is recorded in the scriptures how David danced before God in
worship.
We are required to
present our bodies as Living Sacrifices. That is bodies dedicated and separated
unto God. Literally meaning bodies offered on the altar. Unfortunately many
times we can crawl off the altar through sin and disobedience.
David knew this and
said, I will not offer to the Lord my God any sacrifice that has cost me
nothing.
Worship will cost us:
1.
Our
self centeredness – you cannot exalt God and yourself at the same time
o
You
don’t worship to be seen by others or to please yourself.
o
You
deliberately shift the focus off yourself.
2.
It
will take your efforts and energy.
“Love the Lord with all your strength”.
It is not always convenient or comfortable.
3.
Worship
is sometimes a sheer act of the will.
When you worship out of a sheer act of the
will or you help others who are worn out, you are offering a sacrifice of
worship to God. That pleases God.
Finally, worshiping
God is no all about our selves, the music, the choir or even the choice of
songs although these things help to enhance worship. Worship is about God and
for it to be acceptable it must be done His way.
My prayer is that you will be a true worshiper indeed.
God bless you.
Dr. James Iruobe.
No comments:
Post a Comment