Worship

"God created us for this: to live our lives in a way that makes Him look more like the greatness and the beauty and the infinite worth that He really is. This is what it means to be created in the image of God." – John Piper

After working with kids for any amount of time, one quickly comes to the conclusion that children are curious creatures. This is easily evidenced by the fact that they ask questions. A lot of questions. Especially with younger children, the most questions asked are often “why” questions. Why does this happen? Why doesn’t that happen? Why do I have to eat my vegetables? Why is the sky blue? Why do I have to be nice? Why do I have to go to bed?

There is a common assumption that as children grow, they will ask fewer questions as their knowledge grows. But does their curiosity leave them? Think of it this way – you were once a curious child, and while you may no longer vocalize your questions, are you no longer curious? I think there is an illusion that with age and wisdom we loose our curiosity. Or perhaps somewhere along the way we start accepting things for the way they are for that reason alone and sadly stop seeking answers. However, it is healthy to continue to ask questions and challenge ourselves to find answers throughout our lives. Now of course we stop asking why we need to eat our vegetables (unless you really don’t understand that they add to a healthy diet and provide many important nutrients), but the answers to some questions are still mysteries to us. We are still just as curious as we were as children, just about different questions.

I often find myself asking those questions – not why do I have to go to bed, but the more general “why” questions. Perhaps the biggest “why” question posed (maybe in all of humanity) is about the meaning of life. Why are we here? Why do we exist? Why did God create us?

There are plenty of answers to this question, many of them good ones. But every answer I’ve heard to the question of why we exist only ever boils down to one ultimate goal. One all-consuming end. One purpose. When all is said and done, the purpose of life is to glorify God. That’s it. That’s the answer. God created us to glorify Him. Now I don’t mean to over-simplify it, as glorifying God can take many unique forms, but in the end, we were created to glorify God. To exalt His name. To praise Him and Him alone. In a word, worship.

I wanted to find a concise definition for worship, and in that search I was reminded that worship is not just a noun – it is not just a thing, an object, a concept. It can be defined as a noun, as Merriam-Webster does calling worship “the reverence offered a divine being or supernatural power; a form of religious practice with its creed and ritual.” But that is not the extent of worship. Worship is not just a concept – with it comes the necessity for action, for movement, for a verb form. As a verb, Merriam-Webster defines worship as “to honor or reverence as a divine being or supernatural power; to regard with great or extravagant respect, honor, or devotion.” In that definition, it is clear – worship is a verb. Worship has implications of action, movement, a state of being. It is not stationary, inactive, or idle. Worship (that is, glorifying God), is not a stagnate thing that allows a passive engagement. Rather, it requires us to act. To respond. To engage.

All right, so if we are created to worship and glorify God, and that worship requires action, then where do we go from here? Well, Jesus spoke on the subject of worship in one of my favorite passages from the Bible. The Gospel of John narrates Jesus’ encounter with a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well (John 4:4-42). I love the narrative of His encounter with this woman, who by all cultural means and worldly standards has no right to even be conversing with Jesus. This was a woman forced to go to the well for her water in the middle of the day, a different time than the other women, because she was outcast, isolated, separated from the rest of her community because of her life of sin in their judgmental human eyes. This is due to the fact that this woman had five husbands, yet was not married to the man she was living with; this shows her life of wickedness and sin, which was enough to make people question the appropriateness of her conversing with Jesus. Beyond that, she was a Samaritan, and in this day Jews were expected to stay away from Samaritans. Yet despite all of these social and cultural standards that should have separated these two, Jesus reached out to this woman and asked her for a drink from the well. It is in this context (after an awesome conversation concerning living water in John 4:10-14 that I can’t get into now!) that the woman challenges Jesus as to the nature of worship. Here, Jesus gives a definition of worship by which we should be engaging with our Savior:

“Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.’” – John 4:21-24

Jesus gives us the instructions for worship in his conversation with this Samaritan woman, and throughout Jesus’ life it is clear what importance was placed on worship. In His Jewish culture, Jesus learned to worship in private (at home, and in his childhood as he was raised by Mary and Joseph) as well as in public (in the synagogues as well as the Temple in Jerusalem). As compared to our American culture, we also worship in private and in public. In private, we worship through quiet time, through prayer, through study, through meditation. In public, we worship in a church corporately. However, it is interesting to note that our corporate public worship is nothing more than a natural overflow of our private worship. We are reflecting our daily private worship in our weekly public worship. If our private worship lacks authenticity, how then can we expect authentic worship when we are worshiping in public?

If our worship is so connected, then we must pay close attention to Jesus’ words on worship. John 4:23 says “true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.” So what does that mean? Basically, as we worship, we must be sure that we are not just going through the motions. Worship is engaging the spirit. Worship is authentic, with no masks or false allusions. When I was at home a few weeks ago, my pastor at my home church spoke on the importance of true worship. He mentioned the fact that eventually, in heaven, we will all be worshiping God in His very presence. So then, with the realization that worship is ultimately about bringing glory to God, and that one day we will see God in heaven and worship Him in that state, we should be sure that our worship now keeps that constantly on our minds. We must realize that God is spirit, that He is with us as we worship, and we must recognize His presence. We recognize God’s spiritual presence in worship by engaging our spirit when we worship. We should not idly sing along to songs or listen to Scripture readings, but we should engage our spirit in active listening to sermons, seeking truth and relevance in Scripture, and respond to God’s presence. We should be preparing for and participating in it. Worship, ultimately, is done for the glory of God for Him to receive.

Through worship, we also reveal the truth about God. It is only in worship that the clarity of who God is becomes most evident. True worship leaves no room for us to let ourselves remain at the center of our lives. So often we keep ourselves on the thrones of our lives through how we prioritize things, or only partially surrender to God the things that he calls us to leave behind as we fully embrace His grace. Instead of allowing Christ to be the center of our lives, we keep ourselves in control, and in that state it is impossible to effectively engage in worship. True worship, the worship that Jesus calls us to in John 4:24, must reveal the truth that God is first. Therefore, true worship reorders our lives and places God on His rightful throne. A professor at North Park defines worship as “identity maintenance” – it is a reminder of who I am, that my identity is only accurate when God is placed first above all else. There are of course times in my life when I need to be reminded of this truth, and I often find myself realizing that I must return God to his rightful place as the center of my life through worship.

I was talking with a good friend recently about the importance of worship, and she touched on a point that is so incredibly relevant to making sure that our worship is authentic and truthful. Often, when we go to worship, we go with the mentality that we should get something in return. That God will reveal Himself through Scripture clearly. That we would instantly realize the answers to our prayers in a tangible way. That by going through the motions of worship we will somehow magically ‘feel’ the Holy Spirit’s presence. That a conviction or contentment in our worship will be an immediate result. Maybe it’s a past experience of worship, a time when we strongly felt the Spirit, that we are longing and desiring to reach that same place again. However, this can quickly overshadow what our worship should really be. When we enter worship with the preoccupation that we should get something out of it for our benefit, Satan can so easily get a hold of that selfish desire and make worship into something it is not supposed to be. Instead, we need to prepare for worship, engage actively in it – with no wicked, selfish expectations, but with the goal to simply glorify God. The word ‘liturgy,’ which is used often in the context of corporate worship, comes from the Greek word “λειτουργία; Leitourgia” literally meaning the “work of the people.” Our worship is not an idle act; instead, worship is work. Nothing worthwhile in life happens without effort, and worship is just the same. It requires us to take time to prepare for it and participate actively in it. In our worship, we must be drawing from the presence of God. We cannot be selfish in our worship and expect it to be authentic, true worship of God in spirit and truth. Worship, by its very nature, is glorifying God, and there is nothing in the glorification of God that should be of any benefit to us. It is by the very grace of God that we are even allotted to take a breath. How selfish and sinful it is for us to enter a time of worship with any notion that we should have any benefit to take from it!

It can seem so simple, that we were created to worship and glorify God. But the reason we worship, while it is why we were created, is also so that we may be active participants in the kingdom of God. We do the work of worship so that we may then be about the work of the kingdom. There is a risk present in worship – it is by no means always easy to reach a state of complete worship. Complete worship in spirit and truth requires surrender. We are called to surrender to God’s will in our lives, and this is at times no more evident than when we are called to surrender to God in worship. It is often when we are completely surrendered to God in worship that we are quickly reminded of the need to completely surrender all of our lives to Him. We must realize that it is nothing in our own power, but that God calls us as we are. Just as Jesus called His disciples out of their lives as they were to follow Him completely, we are called to surrender to Him just as we are in all of our sin and wickedness that has been washed away through His loving grace by Christ’s blood on the cross. God calls us to surrender. This is definitely an area of struggle for me – being vulnerable is one of my greatest fears. To have no walls or curtains protecting or hiding my heart is something that my sinful self is terrified of. Yet it is in true worship that I find myself completely vulnerable before God and reminded that any walls or curtains I put up are not barriers for my Savior, as much as I may try to make them. Through worship, God reminds me to reorder my life. To place Him on the throne and in the center of my life once again. To be truly vulnerable. To surrender my all. To authentically engage my spirit in glorifying Him. To give Him all the praise He and He alone is so worthy of. God calls us to the work of worship, and I am so thankful that He calls us to surrender just as we are. That is what God created us for – to worship.