Chapter 16 The Thirteenth Day of Worship That Pleases God

The Thirteenth Day of Worship That Pleases God You shall love the Lord—your God—with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. (Mark 12:30) God wants your whole being. He doesn't just want a certain part of your life.He wants your whole heart, your whole soul, your whole mind, and your strength.God is not interested in half-hearted commitments, partial obedience, and the time and money you spend; He wants your total devotion, not a small piece of your life. A Samaritan woman once debated with Jesus about the best time, place, and form of worship. Jesus told her that those were irrelevant issues. But worship is far more important.There are right and wrong ways of worshiping.The Bible says, "We are to worship God with reverence and in a way that pleases Him." 1 Worship that pleases God has four characteristics:

God is pleased with our proper worship People often say, "I like to think of God as..." and then go on to say what an ideal God to worship is like.However, we should not create an image of God that we are comfortable with and that pleases everyone, because that is just an idol. Worship must be based on biblical truth, not on our opinions about God. Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, "He who truly worships the Father, let him worship him in spirit and in truth, for the Father wants such to worship him." "Worship in truth" means that which is revealed in the Bible. a god to worship him.

God is pleased with our sincere worship When Jesus said, "Worship in the Spirit," He was not referring to the Holy Spirit, but to your spirit!You were created in God's image, you are a spirit indwelling a body, and God intended your spirit to fellowship with Him.Worship is the response of our spirit to the Spirit of God. When Jesus said, "Love God with all your heart and with all your soul," He meant that worship must be genuine and heartfelt.What it cares about is not beautiful words, but your sincere words.Unintentional praise is equal to no praise, worthless, and an insult to God.

When we worship, God values ​​our hearts more than our words.The Bible says: "Man looks at the outward appearance; the Lord looks at the heart." Since worship makes us happy in God, of course there will be expressions of emotion.God has given us emotion so that we can worship Him deeply; but this emotion must be sincere; God hates hypocrisy the most, He does not want eye-catching performances or pretentious worship; what He wants is your honesty with true love.Our worship may not be perfect, but it must be sincere. The worship that pleases God is both deeply emotional and doctrinal.We must use our hearts and minds.

Of course, being sincere is not enough, because we can be very sincere and yet be completely wrong.Therefore, worship must have both "spirit" and "truth", and must be both correct and true.The worship that pleases God is deeply emotional and doctrinal.We must use our hearts and minds. Today, some people confuse the emotional excitement brought about by music with the moving of the Holy Spirit, but they are completely different.True worship occurs when your spirit responds to God, not when the melody of music triggers it.In fact, some emotional, introspective songs actually get in the way of worship because they shift the focus from God to your own feelings.The biggest distraction in worship is often yourself—your interests and your worries about what others think of you.

Christians often disagree about the most correct and authentic way to express praise to God, and these debates often simply reflect differences in personal preferences and backgrounds.Many forms of praise are mentioned in the Bible, including confession, singing, cheering, standing up, bowing the knee, dancing, shouting for joy, witnessing, playing musical instruments, raising hands, etc.The best style of worship is to express your true love for God with the character and background God has given you. My friend Gary Thomas has found that many Christians tend to be rutted in their worship, having only a routine rather than a lively communion with God.The reason is that the devotional methods or worship styles they force themselves to use do not match the characteristics God has given them.

Tingueli believes that if God purposely made us different, why should we love Him in the same way?When he consulted some Christian classics and interviewed some mature Christians, he found that in the 2,000-year history of Christianity, Christians have enjoyed intimate fellowship with God in many different ways, including outdoor activities, learning , sing, read, dance, create art, serve others, be alone, socialize, and participate in a variety of other activities. The truest expression of your love for God is the best style of worship. In his book "Sacred pathways", Tingueli mentioned nine ways to get close to God: Naturalists like to express their love for God in nature; Sensualists like to express their love for God in nature; Use their senses, not just ears, but also sight, taste, smell, touch to express their love for God; Traditionalists worship God through rituals, worship, representations, and fixed forms; Ascetics like to be alone Draw close to God with a simple way of life; Activists love God by confronting evil, fighting injustice and building a better world; Serviceists express their love for God by loving others and meeting their needs; Enthusiasts love God with celebration; meditators love God with admiration and love; intellectuals express their love for God with study.

There is no one-size-fits-all way of worshiping and befriending God; but one thing is for sure, if you do not worship God as you are without hypocrisy, you must not be called God is glorified.God wants you to be yourself. "The Father is looking for those who offer worship before God in simplicity and sincerity of heart." God pleases us to worship with our thoughts Jesus’ command to “love God with all our mind” is repeated four times in the New Testament.God doesn't like mindless praise, sloppy, corny prayers, or pointless "praise the Lord" cries.Worship without the mind is meaningless, you must worship with the mind.

Jesus called mindless worship "meaningless repetition," and even biblical terms can sometimes become clichés through misuse and thoughtlessness.It's so easy to use clichés in worship instead of taking the trouble to use new words and ways to glorify God. That's why I encourage you to read different Bible translations so that you can expand your experience in worship. expression. Try not to praise God with words like praise, thanks, hallelujah, amen, etc., but try to list some words with the same meaning and new words, such as admiration, respect, cherish, reverence, reverence, appreciation, etc.

Also, use words clearly.If someone repeats "I praise you!" to you ten times and you might think, "Why?", you would rather receive two explicit compliments than twenty vague and general ones. God is no exception! Another suggestion is to make a list of the different names of God and focus on those names.God’s names are not arbitrary. These names show us the different characteristics of God. In the Old Testament, God gradually taught the Israelites new names to reveal Himself. He also commanded us to praise His name. God also wants us to worship with our minds when we gather for worship.Paul devotes an entire chapter to discussing this in 1 Corinthians 14, concluding, "Let everything be done properly and in order."

On this point, God insists that our meetings should be understood by the non-believers present.Paul observed: "If you only use the language of the spirit (tongues) to say thanks in the meeting, those present who don't understand the "tongues" will not understand what you are saying, so how can they resonate with you and share with you? How about saying “sincerely desire” to thank God?Even if the content of your prayer is very good, but people will not benefit because they don't know what you said. It is a biblical command to be sensitive to unbelievers who participate in worship services. Ignoring this command is disobedience and lack of love.For a complete explanation of this, see Chapter 13 of Straight to the Goal: "Worship Can Be a Witness." God is pleased with our practical worship The Bible says, "...present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." Why does God want us to present our bodies?Why doesn't it say offer your soul?Because you can do nothing in this world without a body.In eternity in the future, you will have a brand new, more beautiful, and better body, but while you are still alive on earth, God's request is: "Give me what you have!" He only asks for practical actions worship. You must have heard someone say, "I can't come to the meeting tonight, but my spirit will be with you." Do you know what that means?Meaningless!As long as you live in this world, your spirit is always with your body. If your body does not appear, you will never appear. Our worship is "offering your body as a living sacrifice." Our concept often associates "sacrifice" with dead things, True worship is rooted in the Word of God. But what God wants is a "living sacrifice", He wants you to live for Him!The problem is, since it's a living sacrifice, it's possible to climb off the altar, and that's often the case with us.How often we sing "Christian Soldier Marching" on Sunday, and become deserters on Monday! In the days of the Old Testament, many different forms of sacrifice were acceptable to God because they all foreshadowed the sacrifice Jesus made for us on the cross.Today God accepts different forms of sacrifice, such as thanksgiving, praise, humility, repentance, offering, prayer, serving others, sharing with those in need, etc. True worship has a price.David understood this when he said, “I will not offer a burnt offering to the Lord my God that is free.” One of the prices we have to pay is that you can’t exalt God while giving up self-centeredness. , and exalt yourself; you don't worship to be seen by others, or to please yourself, you must deliberately turn the focus of attention away from yourself. When Jesus said, "Love God with all your strength," it was pointing out that worship is an effort, not always convenient, and sometimes even an act of will, a willing sacrifice.Passive worship is just an oxymoron. When you don't want to praise but still praise, when you are exhausted and still get up to worship, when you are exhausted and still go to help others, you are offering sacrificial worship to God, and God accepts such worship . Matt Redman, a worship leader in the UK, said his pastor taught his church the true meaning of worship.In order to make the congregation understand that worship is not limited to music, for a period of time he banned singing in gatherings so that they could learn to worship in other ways.When this period was over, Matt wrote a classic song called "Heart of Worship": All I bring you is a song, Because the song is not what you want, You seek farther than this, not what it appears on the surface, You are looking into my heart. Worship is all about one heart.