John 4:23-24 says: "But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall 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."
God moves in a fresh way in his church and amongst his people and an important part of this restoration comes from warm and sincere celebration of God through praise and worship. We need to worship God. And God deserves our worship, praise and thanksgiving.
Praise and worship is essential for every Christian. It is important, because God created us to praise him. Wherever you find people, they worship something. It may look and be different from what we are used to, but even so, all peoples on earth worship a higher being. Human beings will have a god, even if it is not the true God. This is because God created us to worship.
But God desires for us to become true worshipers who worship the one and only true God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. John 4:23-24 says: "…the true worshipers shall 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."
God has called us, his sons and daughters, to be these worshipers. “God seeks worshippers”, the Bible says in this verse. To worship God in “spirit and truth” means to worship the true God whole heartedly, honestly, earnestly and truthfully. It teaches us that our worship should come from our heart, be devoted to our God and will be experienced under inspiration of God personally, through his Spirit.
In the Old Testament, priests offered sacrifices to God. According to the New Testament, Christians are all priests who offer sacrifices of thanksgiving and love to God. 1 Peter 2:4-5 says, "And coming to him as to a living stone… you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."
What are these spiritual sacrifices? Hebrews 13:15 tells us: "Through him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to his Name." We offer sacrifices of praise, the fruit of our lips.
To praise and worship the one and only true God, is a high and inspiring calling. It is a privilege, and everyone saved by the grace of God through Jesus wants to do nothing else than bring the fruit of our lips, our songs and our prayers and our witness, as sacrifices to the holy God who deserves our love, our devotion and our passion!
No comments:
Post a Comment