Foundations

But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” John 4:23-24 ESV

The Father is and always has been seeking true worshipers. The true worshipers must worship Him in spirit and truth. If this is what He’s seeking, then we should desire to worship Him freely and actively express what He seeks from our lives, right?

Worship is more than just singing slow songs; it’s about ministering to God by giving him our very life as an offering, from the inside out. Our love, time, conversation, and actions (or maybe even a lack of re-action!) are some of the broad ways we can serve God and minister to Him. These activities aren’t about us going through the motions, He is seeking true worshipers. Yes, singing is an important part of it, but it isn’t the complete picture. Interestingly, most people have a sense of God’s presence during singing (Psalm 100:2b). It’s always been a strange thing to me that we don’t spend more time in that place. We tend to either get too busy or just be too lazy to dedicate time to linger in His presence, but it’s essential to our spiritual growth. These moments where we feel close to God are the very place we get connected to His heart, which empowers us to be about His business. This is priceless!

It’s not that God needs worship in a technical sense, but really that He desires it and seeks after those who will give their entire lives to Him as a worship offering. This comes not just from outward religious activity, but from the deepest place inside of us, our eternal spirit. This is where worship originates… the deep places that many people keep buried under busyness and worldly passions. God isn’t looking for us to make up our own ways to do worship either. Truth doesn’t come from us; it comes from Him. So, to worship in truth, we must worship on His terms and not our own. Do you know what His terms for worship are? Oh for grace to know what God wants and why He wants it. This has been a struggle with mankind at least since Cain and Able brought offerings to Him. People judging others for their offerings (i.e… worship) to Him has been happening about as long. Beware of being the one to judge others for their worship. God often values extravagant worship offerings that challenge the conventional ways of worldly logic (2 Samuel 6:16-23 and John 12:1-8).

We should seek to honor our Father in heaven every moment of every day. Being about our Father’s business is critically important, but He isn’t just looking for us to do stuff for Him. He’s seeking true worshipers who are connected to Him in spirit and truth. He desires that the business we are about, is actually what He’s asking of us or directing us in. We must take time to see what He is doing. He wants us to be worshipers who offer their lives in working (serving) with Him, not just hired help that only focus on tasks to be done for Him. He’s invited us to partner with Him in His heart’s desire. We would all do well to come to the Father, through Jesus, and both intentionally and unreservedly give Him what He seeks.

When we do this, we become an answer to the prayer; “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”