Acceptable worship 1

Call To Prayer

Title: Acceptable worship 1

By: Simon Nuhu

Date: 09.08.2024

²⁴ God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth ( John 4:24).

Worship is a compound word that involves a lot of activities in the Spirit and also in the physical. Through the Scriptures, we are told that all the creatures of God glorify and worship His beauty, majesty and sovereignty (Revelations  4:8-11). The purpose of worship is to glory and exalt the creator according to how He wants it. All the creatures of God whether visible or invisible, earthly or heavenly, worship according to the measure of the ability He Has given them. These could be in the form of sounds (music and songs either with mouth or instruments), praises and gestures etc. The angels in Heaven sing melodious songs, the elders, the four Beasts and all other creatures worship Him. I would like to focus specifically on man. Man as the apex creature of God (Psalm 8:3-9 82:6), was created with superior privileges, in fact, man will judge angels (1 Corinthians 6:3). Therefore God has great expectations from man, even in acts of worship.

As other creatures, God demands constant worship from man which must be through and in the Spirit. Commonly, believers tend to misunderstand what worship to God means. We just understand it as rendition of songs, hymns, music using different instruments by twisting and shaking the body with various styles of body movements, because David ‘danced’ almost naked before God. Although that is true, however, David danced when the Spirit of God was upon him. He did not dance just to entertain his flesh or ‘feel good’ but was moved by the spirit. And that was just one aspect of David’s life that we apply.

A believer must have accurate revelation of what worship to God is. The first thing God requires is the life and heart of a man. We can sing and dance and do all kinds of cheerful display in the name of worship but if our heart is far away from Him (Isaiah 29:13), it is just entertainment or better still noise. We must first accept that God is ultimately interested in the vessel above everything. It is when the vessel  is fully acquired, purged and sanctified, that God can be glorified in worship. Now, it is also crucial that the man is thoroughly cleans and purified in order to worship.

A believer must also be aware that worship is not one day’s activity. Worshiping God is not limited to Sunday service, Bible study or revival service. We must recognise that our entire life, activities, lifestyle, conversations, how we treat other people and all the days of the week are worship to God (Romans 12:1). Our members must be pure; our heart, our thought, our mind, our tongue and entire being must be pure. We can’t use the same mouth that we insult  God’s creature and later use it to sing songs to Him, neither harbour bitterness, hatred, unforgiveness, envy and jealousy, or corrupt conscience, then later come before God and dance showing our anatomy in the name of worship. We can not use worldly music or songs to glorify God because they are not His, as whoever that does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not of Christ! (Romans 8:9).

Prayer point

Let’s thank God for today, and also ask Him to help us worship in Spirit and in truth.