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The Meaning of Worship
| Bro Itai Tembo (Sanyati, Zimbabwe)
W
orship is acknowledging God, praising
Him for His greatness and His
achievements. It is thanking Him for His
love towards us. Worship is reverence paid
to God. We should regard Him as sacred
and exalted and admit our endless
dependence on Him.
Worship is the intimacy we should experi-
ence in knowing God. It should be a one-
on-one with God. It should be deep
meditation, and not the shedding of tears
in the church for all to see. ?Worship the
Lord in the splendour of his holiness;
tremble before Him, all the earth. Say
among the nations, ?The Lord reigns?. The
world is firmly established, it cannot be
moved; he will judge the peoples with
equity? (Psalms 96:9-10).
Moses had a one-on-one with God while
tending his flock (Exodus chapter 3).
Abraham spoke to God when God made a
covenant with him. The angel of the Lord
appeared to him. So if we worship Him
with all our might, He will reward us in
due time. Abraham was given a son when
his wife Sarah was past the age of bearing
children.
What lesson do we learn from all this? ?The
angel of the Lord encamps around those
who fear him and delivers them. Taste and
see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the
man who takes refuge in him? (Psalms
34:7-8).
On many occasions Jesus Christ had a one-
on-one with God. He would move to a
secluded place to pray to God, to worship
the Father. One such incident was when he
was with his disciples. He actually with-
drew about a stone?s throw beyond them,
knelt down and prayed. An angel of the
Lord appeared to him (Luke 22:38-43).
Let us worship the Father with our hearts
and minds, and endeavour to be in deep
meditation with Him always.
* * *
Believers or Disciples ?
learn from him, not to find support for a pet
position. He sits at Jesus? feet and he hears
him. There is much more to believing in
Christ than simply accepting in our heads the
fact of his existence. The belief must move
from the head to the heart, and result in
genuine repentance and cross-bearing.
When Saul, he was struck down on the road to
Damascus, he asked ?Lord, what wilt thou
have me to do?? (Acts 9:6). A disciple hears
what Jesus teaches, ?He heareth these
sayings of mine and doeth them?? (Matthew
7:24). Too many Christian believers do not
really believe Jesus enough to obey him.
Rather, they hear these sayings and do not do
them (See 2 Peter 3:11, which poses a ques-
tion for each of us to answer: what manner of
persons ought we to be?)
To preach on the radio, in the street, and to
understand all the signs of the times without
really showing the excellencies of God mani-
fested to the world as Jesus manifested
them. In fact, such ?believers? are not true
believers. Believers should not only be disci-
ples, they should also make disciples. Our
work now is to make disciples whether by
words or deeds. It is a pity that many of us
can preach the gospel, but be far from the
life of Christ.