Our worship is never wasted, we have to learn to turn our worry into worship. It is not on the worshiper but on the One who is worshiped. Worship is an exercise of the human spirit that is directed primarily to God; Just as praise is intertwined with thanksgiving, worship is intertwined with surrender.
I realized that even though they’re frequently used to mean the same thing, praise and worship are actually two very different ideas. The most basic difference is that Worship is based in who God is, While praise is based in what He does. Praise is about God, Worship is to God. Praise is opening up, Worship is entering in. Praise is boldly declaring, Worship is humbly bowing in the presence of a Holy God. Praise applauds what God has done, Worship is honoring God for who He is.
When we worship something, we declare that it is worthy (Psalm 145:3). We worship something when we act as if it has value. By nature, human beings are worshipers. Sometimes our worship is focused on that which is actually worthy of reverence (like God). Other times it is misdirected (for instance, we worship our work or our bank accounts or a celebrity or fashion or a political icon or a sports team).
Worship is a life response to the worthiness of its object. When we worship God, we do so in response to who He is (Psalm 52:9). Our attitudes and actions reflect that we believe the character and conduct of God to be worthy of praise and adoration. At times our worship is expressed through corporate singing, teaching, and tithing. It is also expressed in our daily lives through prayer, Scripture reading, acts of kindness, gratitude, pure thoughts, and the like.
God’s holiness is the one thing that separates us from Him. God is loving, but even a lost person can be a little bit loving sometimes. God is merciful, but even a lost person can sometimes be merciful. However, God is also holy, and nobody in the world can ever claim to be even a little bit holy. God is, by His very nature, something that we could never be no matter how hard we tried; that’s how much more impressive than us He is, and that’s why He deserves our worship.
The really great thing about God, and the thing that makes Him deserve worship even more, is that He doesn’t just sit up on His Holy stool and let that be the end of it. "There’s a theological conundrum called “immanence and transcendence.” What it means is that God is very near to us, all around us in fact, and we can easily call on Him just by saying His name. That’s called immanence. However, He’s also very far from us, because we can’t touch Him, and short of salvation through Christ, there’s no way we can even have a relationship with Him. That’s called transcendence. God’s holiness is the chief force behind His transcendence; our sin is what separates us from a high and holy God. However, His love and mercy are the driving forces behind His immanence. He came down to us, took the form of a lowly human, who got tired and hungry and frustrated, and then allowed Himself to be put to an unjust death simply to allow us a way of entering a relationship with Him – that’s how incomparably huge His love and mercy are". This is all in addition to the worship He deserves because of His holiness!
Praise, on the other hand, is based in how God’s attributes (“who God is”) impact me in my life. For example, I worship God because He is loving. I praise Him because that love has manifested itself in the form of salvation and in constant companionship and encouragement no matter how badly I mess up. I worship God because He is holy; I praise Him because He has reconciled me to Himself through the death of His sinless Son. I worship Him because of His mercy; I praise Him because His mercy shows itself in the form of forgiveness of all my sins, past, present, and future.
Praise is also addressed in many of the Psalms. Take 139:14, which says, “I praise you, oh God, because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” Note that: I praise you “because.” Praise is grounded in what God does. Psalm 9:11 elaborates: “Sing praises to the Lord, enthroned in Zion; proclaim among the nations what He has done.” Again, the theme of praise is directly connected to “what He has done.”
By praising God, you release your faith in His ability to take care of you and your needs so you’ll worry less and sleep better. Your family will be blessed for your sake-some examples of this may be your husband and children being protected from harm, your husband or wife if married, getting a raise at his or her job or making decisions that impacts your family in a positive way.
As you faithfully continue to praise God, increased blessings will start to appear in your life (Psalms 84:11). The suit you have been wanting goes on sale, your spouse buys you the music CD you’ve been wanting or your friend gives you a gift certificate to your favorite bookstore. Eventually, you will no longer struggle to make the house payments nor worry about your lights getting shut off.
You’ll see increased answers to your prayers. Praising God with a sincere heart, gives you favor with Him and increases your confidence in His willingness to bless you. The Word of God say that we are to worship Him in spirit and truth. We do not worship in spirit in one setting and in truth in another. We are in both at once.
Our spirit is the core of who we are. It is the center of our volition and our emotions. We also know that God is a spiritual being. To worship in spirit, then, is to do something that is beyond the physical. We do not worship by simply bowing our knees; we worship through a heart posture (Psalm 51:17). And our worship is in line with the worship going on in heaven (Psalm 148:1-2; Ephesians 6:12; Revelation 4:8).
Worshiping in truth means that we worship based on truth (see Romans 10:2). This includes the truth about who God is and what He does, hence why He is worthy of worship. It also includes the truth about our circumstances. We worship God even when we are experiencing heartache. When we worship Him, we do not forget about our hurt, but we worship even in the truth of our hurt. We also worship in joyful circumstances. Truth itself can be a means of worship; we worship God when we declare His truth.
To worship God in spirit and in truth, then, is to declare that God is worthy of our reverence. We do this both through our emotional core and in light of reality. We worship God based on the truth of who He is, the truth of who we are, the truth of what God does, and the truth of what is going on in our world. We do it with a heart inclined toward God and in submission to Him. We worship God when our attitudes, actions, and words declare that He is worthy of our praise.
Blessings
J.P. Olson
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