We need to enter into the highest form of worship!
Romans 12: 1
*Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship.*
True worship should be an individual expression of love and gratitude to God from the heart.
Worship> reverence offered to a divine being, an act of expressing such reverence, extravagant respect, adoration or devotion.
What are you most devoted to in your life? Is it the object of your devotion or adoration or deep respect (worship)? What is the reason for that devotion? God wants to be the complete focus of devotion in our lives.
In Exodus 20:2-3 says* I am the Lord your God..... you shall have no other gods before me.* And in Matthew 4:10 Jesus says * Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.* So worship is not just a natural instinct, it is a command from God.
True worship requires total commitment of our bodies, mind and spirit. It has nothing to do with religion but, everything to do with having an intimate and profound relationship with God.
To worship in truth we must:
1) Have purity of heart
2) Deal with any sin in our hearts and repent
3) Have a spirit of humility
4) Have a spirit of submission to the will of God
5) Have a spirit of obedience
6) Have a spirit of commitment
7) Have a sense of wonder of who He is and have a sense of awe in His presence
8) Have an awareness of God's presence and be overwhelmed by His majesty
9) Be speechless in His presence and allow Him to speak to us
True worship is not about us, it's all about God. We can not truthfully worship God with sinin our lives or if there is any self-will in our hearts.
Many today are speaking of and looking for revival, but the only real revival will result from a return to obedience. That is what God is looking for from us, His family, His church.
We can not play with the world and have spiritual blessings at the same time. God warned us from the very beginning to be obedient, and He warned us that blessings or cursings would follow, according to how we respond. Obedience is at the heart of God. If you read throughout the Old Testament you will notice that whenever the Isrealites were obedient to God and His commands , He blessed them and protected them. But, Him they were punished; some died, some were captured into slavery, and they even wandered in the desert for 40 years before they got it right.
Do we really want the favor of God? Obedience is the only way to receive His favor. God is not satisfied with partial obedience, He wants complete and perfect obedience. We often miss a lot of what God has for us because we insists on doing things our own way.
While God promises unlimited blessings to those who obey Him, just the opposite is true of those who don't. Deuteronomy 28: 15-19 says *However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all His commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you. You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country. your basket and kneading trough will be cursed...... You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.*
There is always a terrible price for disobedience. But, obedience brings unlimited blessings.
There are always "If's" to God's promises, we must never ignore them.
God desires that we worship Him in spirit and in truth, and obedience is the highest form of worship. If we are to enter into the highest form of worship then we need to express such a reverant form of respect and adoration and be fully devoted to being totally obedient to God.
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