Memorise:
God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. John 4:24
Read: John 4:21-24
21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
23 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.
24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
Message
It is not all acts of worship that God accepts, because not all worshippers are true worshippers. The truth was revealed by Jesus in His conversation with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. He also revealed some other great truths about worship that we should pay close attention to if we want our worship to be acceptable to God. The first of these is that any “God” that is limited or restricted to particular place is false and not worthy of worship. Worship directed towards such contraptions of men is counterfeit worship.
The worship of the true God does not involve going to a junction where three roads meet to put food items for God to come and eat. Paul came across worshippers of such gods at Mars’ Hill in Athens (Acts 17:22-31).
The true God is described thus by the Psalmist in Psalm 8:1:
“O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! Who hast set thy glory above the heavens.”
Another truth about worship which Jesus revealed is that any god that does not have a fatherly relationship with his worshippers is not worthy of our worship. Anyone worshipping such gods is not a true worshipper. This is why Jesus came to make us children of His Father.
Also, when He was teaching His disciples how to pray, He described the true God as “Father” (Luke 11:2). Furthermore, Jesus revealed that our worship of God is not true worship if we do not know the God we are worshipping. This is the reason why Paul tried to introduce the Athenians to the God they were ignorantly worshipping (Acts 17:23). He tried to teach them that they were wrong to think that the Godhead could be represented by gold, silver or stone graven by art and man’s devices (Acts 17:29). No worshipper should ignorantly think that a Holy God will accept worship from a life laden with the sin of falsehood, pretence and all manner of immorality and wickedness.
True worship involves worshipping the true God in spirit and in truth, we must worship God in spirit because God is a Spirit, and only through the spirit can we relate meaningfully with His Spirit.
To worship God in Sprit means to do what He bids you to do with a spiritual mind of faith. These are things the Holy Spirit of God would ask us to do that viewed with a carnal mind, are difficult to understand. For example, when God asked Noah to build a big ship on dry ground, to men of his generation, this was not a sensible thing to do. That a person should stick to one spouse “for better, for worse” may not sound reasonable, but that is what the word of God says. A true worshipper of God will not tell lies even if there is no risk of being found out. To a true worshipper, being truthful is not about man but about God who is all-knowing.
Prayer Point:
Father, grant me grace to live a life of acceptable worship through Your Spirit in Jesus’ Name.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR : 1 KINGS 7:1-8:11 and LUKE 2:22-40
AUTHOR: Pastor E.A. ADEBOYE
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