Worship

Worship: What does it look like to worship an Ever Living God?

The dictionary defines worship as a few different things. However, outside of the dictionary definition, I'd like to share with you what I think of as worshipping the Lord. First, let me give you a little bit of background of myself in order that I may have some sort of credibility with you. I was raised in a home where music was a part of daily life. My Mother was a music teacher, I sang from an early age and learned the basics of piano, although I never learned completely. In church I sang in all the children's choirs, as I was the daughter of the director. In high school I became the Worship team leader for the Ashland District Youth Council. I had been a member of the Greater Richmond Children's Choir and had sung at Carnegie Hall. However, with all of these qualifications to sing, nothing prepared me for the worship team I stepped onto at Virginia Commonwealth University.

I was blessed to be a part of the Intervarsity Worship Team as a freshman and was blessed to have a worship leader who wanted to worship the Lord through his entire being. It was there that for the first time in my life, I really learned to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth. As believers we are called to worship in Spirit and in Truth. Now, what does this look like? In John we find Jesus talking a Samaritan woman at the town well. We know from this passage that she was a shameful woman who had previously taken many husbands and now was the lover of another. But when Jesus reached out to her, she recognized Him as a prophet and began to speak of the Jews and the Samaritans and how the Jews claimed it was necessary to worship in a certain place while the Samaritans worshipped on a particular mountain. And Jesus said to her, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship what we do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and now has 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." And the woman replied to him, "I know that the Messiah is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us." And Jesus replied, "I who speak to you am he". (John 4)

What a revelation to find out that the Lord looks for those who do not worship in a certain place or a certain time, but in a certain manner. To worship in truth is to worship in the word, and to worship in spirit is to worship in the spirit of Christ.