True Worship

I read a quote recently that said something along the lines of “If you want to know what your idol is look at what makes you angry”. It has stuck with me over the last couple of days and wish I could find where I saw it! Anyway, it keeps coming to me as I have noticed a certain thing that makes me angry to the point that it interrupts my worship of God through song. I realize this thing, which is a preference of style, has nothing to do with the root issue of my anger, or idolatry. Once again it comes back to my idol of self. I want to do things my way. I want to control the circumstances, but I know I can not.

I can not insist on my preference of a certain style of song  or music just as you can not insist on your preference. When we begin to demand our preferences in order to worship, we begin to walk a thin line of making it more about me (or you) than God.

So once again I find myself asking the question, what is worship? I know it’s more than the songs we sing on Sunday. It’s more than anything we do on a Sunday during “worship” services. But so many people, including myself at times, insist that the worship service must be a certain way. We all have opinions and preferences.

I want to know what God wants. How does He define worship? What does it look like according to His desires?

In John 4 Jesus tells the Samaritan woman, who believes in God and worshipped him according to the her traditions, that her worship is wrong. The Jews worshipped in Jerusalem, but even their worship had become apostate. He then says in verses 23 and 24, "But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.  "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

What does it mean to worship in Spirit and Truth? What is true worship? If true worshippers will worship both in spirit and in truth, does that mean those who don’t worship this way are false worshippers? Is there a right way and a wrong way to worship?

As you can see I have a lot of questions. I want to worship in spirit and truth. I want to worship in a way that brings glory to God and allows me to totally focus on Him.

As I journey to seek answers I thought it would be fun to allow you to walk with me. Hopefully together we will answer these questions by searching scripture to see what it says about worship.  

Here is just a taste of some of the questions I hope to answer, not necessarily in this order.

• How do we worship?
• Who do we worship?
• Is individual worship different than corporate?
• What does worship in spirit and truth look like?
• Does God care how I worship as long as my heart is right?

I hope you join me as I would love to hear your heart and what God has taught you about true worship.