One of the common mistakes of people who worship God is the belief that when they go to mass or service every week is enough to please God. When they finished this weekly obligations as they say, they are thinking that they already met the expectations of God. But, is this kind of thinking correct according to the Bible? Let us examine the importance of worshiping God. How frequent must we worship God?
The first worship
The Bible shows that the first evidence of worship was when Noah and his family escaped the great flood. He built an altar for the Lord God and offered burnt offerings on the altar. God was delighted with them.
Gen 8:20 And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
Gen 8:21 And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.
From here, we see that the hour or the day is not given emphasis when they worship God. What matters most here is that when they worship God, God was delighted by their burnt offerings. God loves to smell the sweet smelling savor of their offerings.
Another Biblical account of worship is when God commanded Abraham to offer his son, Isaac as a burnt offering. Of course this was only a test in the part of Abraham. But as we see in the account, which we can read in Genesis 22 that burnt offerings are offered to God as a sign of worship.
Gen 22:1 And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.
Gen 22:2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
Gen 22:3 And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.
Gen 22:4 Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off.
Gen 22:5 And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.
Gen 22:6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together.
Gen 22:7 And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?
Gen 22:8 And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.
Gen 22:9 And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.
Gen 22:10 And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.
Gen 22:11 And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.
Gen 22:12 And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.
Gen 22:13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.
Another Biblical account was during the time of Moises when God commanded them to worship Him.
Exo 24:1 And he said unto Moses, Come up unto the LORD, thou, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and worship ye afar off.
Exo 24:1 And he said unto Moses, Come up unto the LORD, thou, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and worship ye afar off.
Exo 24:2 And Moses alone shall come near the LORD: but they shall not come nigh; neither shall the people go up with him.
Exo 24:3 And Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the LORD hath said will we do.
Exo 24:4 And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel.
Exo 24:5 And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the LORD.
Exo 24:6 And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basons; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar.
Exo 24:7 And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient.
Exo 24:8 And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words.
From here we read that burnt offerings are present, but this time there was an association of sprinkling of blood to the altar as well as the reading of the book of the covenant. It is evident in the Old Testament that one of the elements of worshiping God is to bring offerings. Offerings can be an animal which will be burned in the altar and can be fruits of the land.
Deu 26:10 And now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land, which thou, O LORD, hast given me. And thou shalt set it before the LORD thy God, and worship before the LORD thy God:
God should be praised and worshiped in the beauty of holiness
1Ch 16:29 Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come before him: worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness. In worshiping God, it is evident in the Old Testament that offerings as well as the one who will offer are present. They come before God and bring their offerings to Him. But what about in the New Testament?
Jesus mentions about worshiping God – Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. (Matthew 4: 10b) It is a must for everyone to worship the Lord God. But many people worship God according to their ways and not according to His will. These worships that they do are all in vain. Mat 15:9 But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
Many people during the time of Jesus think that God must be worshiped only in Jerusalem, where the temple of Solomon can be found. Joh 4:19 The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Joh 4:20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. And Jesus answered, Joh 4:21 Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
God must be worshiped in Spirit and Truth
Jesus says, Joh 4:23-24 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. A lot of meaning can be discussed through these words of Jesus about worshiping God. When we worship God, we must worship Him in spirit and in truth.
Worship God in Spirit
Worshiping in the spirit has nothing to do with our physical posture. Worshiping in the spirit requires a lot of things. Since God is spirit, we need to understand how to worship Him in spirit. In order to worship God in the spirit, we need to have the spirit of God. And the spirit of God is given to those who were baptized in the church of God. (Acts 2: 38, 41) (See: The True Born Again)
Without the Holy Spirit inside us, we cannot respond to God in worship, because we don’t know Him. The moment we are baptized, we are accepted as a son of God, and therefore God has already recognized us as well as our worship. Gal 4:9 But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, (a) Apostle Paul says, “No one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 2:11b). The Holy Spirit within us is the one who energizes worship because He is in essence glorifying Himself, and all true worship glorifies God.
When we worship God in spirit, it needs a mind focused on God and renewed by His truth. Paul says, Rom 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Rom 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
If our minds will not change from being worldly centered to God centered, we can not worship God in spirit. Therefore, our minds should have a total turn around. And this happens when God make us as a servant to Him and give ourselves as a living sacrifice to Him. No distractions must hinder us from worshiping the true God, that is, no images, no idols, and among others.
When we worship God in spirit, we worship Him with a pure heart. Having a pure heart means being open to Him by asking forgiveness, as a sign also of being repentant. Do we remember King David’s experience when he committed sin and his heart was filled with guilt because of Bathsheba? (2 Samuel 11). King David knows that it is not possible to worship God because he felt that he was too far from God because of his sins. He cried all day and night and made confessions to the Lord about his sins. Psa 32:3 When I did not confess my sins, I was worn out from crying all day long. Psa 32:4 Day and night you punished me, LORD; my strength was completely drained, as moisture is dried up by the summer heat.
After his confession, his relationship with God was restored and he begun to worship God again filled with spirit in his heart. From there, King David understood that sacrifices to God must include a humble and a repentant heart. Psa 51:17 My sacrifice is a humble spirit, O God; you will not reject a humble and repentant heart. If we are full of sin and we do not confess and be repentant to God, we can not worship Him in spirit.
Worship God in Truth
Worshiping in truth means our worship must include the Word of God. Jesus says, “Thy word is truth” (John 17:17b). Psalm 119 says, “Thy law is truth” (v. 142b) and “Thy word is true” (v. 160a). To truly worship God, we must understand who He is and what He has done, and the only place He has fully revealed Himself is in the Bible. Worship is an expression of praise from the depths of our hearts toward a God who is understood through His Word. If we do not have the truth of the Bible, we do not know God and we cannot be truly worshiping.
Since external actions are unimportant in Christian worship, there is no rule regarding whether we should sit, stand, fall down, be quiet, or sing praises loudly while in corporate worship. These things should be decided based on the nature of the congregation. The most important thing is that we worship God in spirit (in our hearts) and in truth (in our minds.)
Is Weekly Service Enough to Please God?
Christians during the time of the Apostles worship God daily. Act 2:46 And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart. From here, we learn that worshiping God is not done only once a week. It is done throughout the week, because our bodies will be a living sacrifice to God in all the things we do.
And in all the things we do, we see to it that we worship God. By doing what is according to His will, we give praise to Him that called us. Apostle Peter says, 1Pe 1:15-16 But be holy in every detail of your lives, as he, whose servants you are, is holy; Because it has been said in the Writings, You are to be holy, for I am holy. Therefore, worshiping God is not only restricted to being in the chapel or in the temple. All the details of our lives, and all manner of it should be holy – and being holy means we are trying to please God to worship Him.
