Topic: THE TRUE
WORSHIPPERS
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, Bible in one year: 1st Kings 7:1-8:11, Luke
2:22-40
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 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 what 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.
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