What is Worship

“God thirsts to be thirsted after.”

St. Augustine

 

“The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshipped anything but himself” -

Richard Francis Burton

 

What is worship?  And based on Richard Francis Burton’s quote, we might ask, who is our worship of?

 

Is worship the practice of gathering with other believers to sing a few hymns (or contemporary worship songs), say a prayer or two, listen to a sermon, and take communion and the offering, all in the name of Jesus?  There are those that think this is the extent of worship, that it is solely the hour or two on Sunday morning.  While the Sunday morning gatherings can be considered worship to the Lord, is that it?  Must we go a week before we can worship again the following Sunday? 

 

Worship does not have to be tied to the structured weekly event of doing “church”.  It is a state of heart…morning, noon and night…each and every day.  As it says in John 4:23-24, “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”

 

Random House Dictionary offers these synonyms to help describe worship:  honor, homage, adoration, venerate, revere, adore, glorify, idolize, adulate. Worship perhaps in its simplest form is adoration. Richard Foster in his book, Prayer Finding the Heart’s True Home writes of the prayer of adoration being comprised of two distinct parts – Praise and Thanksgiving.   He notes, “in thanksgiving we give glory to God for what He has done for us.  In praise we give glory to God for who He is in Himself.”

 

Thanksgiving – “grateful acknowledgment of benefits or favors, esp. to God.” (Random House Unabridged Dictionary

 

The Bible is full of prayers of thanksgiving.  “O give thanks to the LORD; for He is good; for His

steadfast love endures forever.” Ps. 106:1. 

 

In Psalms 92 it says:  “It is good to give thanks to the Lord…”  Why?  Because of His steadfast love

in the morning, His faithfulness by night, His great works.

 

Praise – the act of expressing approval or admiration; commendation; laudation. the offering of grateful homage in words or song, as an act of worship: a hymn of praise to God.  Random House Unabridged Dictionary

 

The Bible is also full of praise.  “I will bless the Lord at all times, His praise shall continually be in my mouth. Ps. 34:1

 

In Psalms 100:4-5 it says to “Enter His gates with Thanksgiving, and His courts with praise.  Give

thanks to Him, bless His name, for the Lord is good…

 

We may desire that our worship of God flow as easily as these and other Psalms…that we could be free to worship each day without hindrance.  But there are hindrances.  C.S Lewis noted several that Richard Foster related to out inability to truly pray in adoration. First, Inattention – It is easy in our culture to be caught up in the whirl of life and miss the overtures of Divine Love. Second, The Wrong Kind of Attention – We see a sunset and are drawn into analysis rather than doxology.  Or, caught up in frustrations rather than what might be the message. Third, Greed – Instead of simply enjoying pleasures, we demand more pleasures.  We ask God for encores instead of reflect on and enjoy what He has given. And Fourth, Conceit – It can be easy for those who discover God in the ordinary to get very smug about it all. When conceit takes over, the focus is once again on how wonderful we are – this severs the cords of adoration.

 

Richard Foster continues to offer up some very practical steps to becoming true worshippers, who can pray

the prayer of adoration.  I summarize some of these below into hopefully an easy to follow pattern:

 

Stepping Stones (How we get there)

·    We must begin where we are:  We don’t learn the goodness of God by contemplating the goodness of God, but by noticing – Watch a butterfly, notice the little creatures that crawl on the ground, watch the birds, squirrels, ducks, etc. 

·   Don’t try to make yourself be thankful, or try to find God in it all, simply listen, smell, taste, see, feel.

·   Soon, if we do this often enough, we will begin to experience pleasures rather than scrutinize or analyze them.

·   Find a “grateful center”. Sue Monk Kid writes about finding a time and place where we were free, at peace,grateful…go to this place often in your thoughts and imagination.

·   From this grateful center allow whispered prayers of thanksgiving to flow forth and to grow into thanks for little things each day.

·   Try to move into living one entire day in thanksgiving (or an afternoon, or an hour…).

·   From here our hearts can readily move towards magnifying and worshipping God

·   Use the psalms to praise God…”O Magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt His name together.”  Let these Psalms become your own. Then let these begin to flow into your own words.

·   Use music, play an instrument or sing in worship and adoration, even make up your own simple God songs.

·   Finally we begin to find ourselves in joyous celebration, laughing, shouting, singing, dancing along with the host of heaven…and even holy silence.

 

What can be added to this other than just start the journey? Don’t wait for Sunday morning to become a worshipper of God.  Start small and take it one step at a time.  Many blessings as you begin.

 

Scott for Wellspring © Copyright 2008 all rights reserved.