What is acceptable to God
A recent conversation prompted me to look a little deeper into my praise and worship.
I love to sing and lift my hands in Church and praise God for all He has done and acknowledge who He is. I felt comfortable with the way that I worshipped and was quite challenged by what I learnt after some research.
Firstly, I decided I needed to make sure I understood what worship is and Websters defines it as
1. The reverent love and devotion accorded a deity, an idol or a sacred object.
2. The ceremonies prayers or other religious forms by which this love is expressed.
So that is the worldly understanding of worship. I wanted to understand what the Bible says about worship, what is acceptable to God.
The Hebrew word for Worship I is “Shachah”. Which means to depress, bow down or to fall down flat. Honestly, this challenged me as I discovered the examples in the bible.
Here is one I found in Genesis 18:1-2 where Abraham has an encounter
“And he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the ground”.
As I pictured myself in Abraham’s position with my face to the ground it struck me that whilst it may not be pleasant to have my face on the ground, it is a position that would encourage me to listen a whole lot better!
The Word tells us that there are many ways to worship God.
In John 4:23(Amp) Jesus said.
“A time will come, however indeed it is already here, when the true (genuine) worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth (reality), for the father is indeed seeking such people as these as His worshippers.”
This is speaking about a heart attitude to give God all the glory and praise that He rightfully deserves, that I need to make sure my heart attitude is right before I consider how my worship sounds or looks. I could prostrate myself on the floor, dance in the aisles, raise my hands sing perfectly but unless I worship Him genuinely, which means my focus must be on Him and unless I truly mean the Words coming out my mouth, it is not pleasing to Him. He is after my heart, He is after your heart.