simpliworship Weblog

21 Jesus replied, “The time is coming, ma’am, when we will no longer be concerned about whether to worship the Father here or in Jerusalem. For it’s not where we worship that counts, but how we worship – is our worship spiritual and real? Do we have the Holy Spirit’s help? For God is Spirit, and we must have his help to worship as we should. The Father wants this kind of worship from us.” Jn4:21 – 24 (TLB)

In the last issue we looked at what it means to worship God in Spirit. The type of worshippers the Father seeks are those who worship ‘under the influence’ of the Holy Spirit. Worshipping in Spirit  has implications for our human spirit as well, and involves a process where the desires of our flesh and soul come into alignment with the desires of our human spirit – a place where we don’t allow physical experience to impact the ‘spiritual act of worship’.

That being said, let’s now turn our attention to worshipping in Truth.

Worshipping in Truth involves us standing on the Truth of who God is. The Psalmist declares,

“The entirety of Your word is truth…” (Ps 119:160 NKJV). It is an undeniable fact that truth is a fundamental quality of God – It’s part of who He is and as worshippers living under the blessing of a new Covenant we are called to worship according to the Truth of what God has done (and is doing) in our lives.  Negative emotions, experiences and circumstances, while very real, will often take the extravagant edge off our worship because they attack the fundamental Truth of who God is.

You may feel rejection, but the Truth is that God accepts you as His own, because you have been bought with a price. You may feel depressed, but the Truth is that God has not given you a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind. You may feel discouraged, but the Truth is that God is completing a good work in you and will continue to do so.  It may be hard to admit, but often our worship is affected by other emotions and feelings of unworthiness, guilt, condemnation, loneliness and fear – of course the list could go on!!!

Mere emotional reality is in no way indicative of the Truth of God.  The reality is that God doesn’t call us to ignore our circumstances, but rather to overcome them. The man or woman who worships God in Truth is not a weak person, but rather a person of strength, determination and fortitude. He or she is not prepared to allow the voice of circumstance to override the voice of Truth.  The ability to stand on what is true brings a new freedom into a believer’s life. It was Jesus who said,  ”Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32)

Several years ago I was leading worship in a great church, and as I looked out over the congregation I saw a man singing and worshipping with his hands raised to God. I remember him catching my attention because it appeared as if he was totally oblivious to anything that was going on around him. It was obvious he had a tremendous love for the Lord. After the service I was told by the Pastor that this same man had recently lost one of his children in a tragic accident – it wasn’t what I was expecting to hear.  What an inspiring example of Psalm 28:7 –   “The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped.”

It was King David who stated during one of his ‘down’ episodes – “I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.” (Psalm 34:1 NKJV)

The Living Bible translates it this way – “I will praise the Lord no matter what happens. I will constantly speak of his glories and grace.” (Ps. 34:1 TLB) 

…and that’s worshipping in Truth!!!