HOW TO TRULY WORSHIP GOD: Debase Yourself
"All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name."
Focus Scripture: "He must increase, but I must decrease." - John 3:30
Admonition
Greetings from the Throne of Grace!
Worship as a topic is very central to our relationship with God. And because the type of relationship we have with God is also crucial to whether we would FINISH STRONG or not, I am trusting my Teacher, the Holy Spirit of God, to allow us to dwell a little on this topic, for a clearer understanding so that we may be able to fine-tune our relationship with God.
Most times in some of our churches, we are often admonished to "let us be in the mood of worship, as we worship the Lord Almighty." then, the choir will bring up a piece of slow sobber music with the instrumental going slowly underneath and almost everyone present in the church will raise either one hand or the two hands up, waving them slowly as they "worship God, the Almighty." I queried the hands being raised one day, and I was made to understand that it was a symbol of total surrender unto God. Hmmm . . . may the good Lord help us all in Jesus' name. Amen.
The above is the understanding of many of us about what constitutes "WORSHIP" to God, our Father. However, what really is worship? Worship means "to adore, to revere, to hold in high esteem." You may want to agree that an object of adoration steals the show, and when somebody is held in reverence, the reverent becomes all that matters.
Such was the attitude of John, the Baptist, in our Focus Scripture this morning, when some people went to him to tell him that Jesus Christ, Whom John baptized has also Himself began to baptize some other people. John told them thus: "He must increase, but I must decrease." What John is saying invariably is that I don't matter anymore, He, Jesus Christ, does. Please, remember that John, the Baptist, has forewarned them about Him before He even appeared at all (Matthew 3: 11).
Again, we see another set of people who gave us a good understanding of what worship should be, a clearer variation of John the Baptist's spoken words, in the book of Revelation 4: 10, which reads: "The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying," One the difficulties Christians often have with the Bible is that they don't know that there is a spiritual angle to everything recorded as physical actions in the Bible. So, many will be performing the physical actions as recorded in the Bible. I pray the Lord enlightens our hearts of understanding in Jesus Christ's mighty name. Amen.
Now, let us see the spiritual meanings of the physical actions of the twenty-four elders above. (1) They bowed: this means they humbled themselves before God. They didn't see themselves as elders. They threw away all their senses of self-importance. They forgot whom they were. (2) They lay down their crowns before Him: crowns are very important part of any King's costumes or dressing. In spiritual parlance, it could stand for glory, laurels, trophies and so on. But these twenty-four elders, unlike many of us, remembered John 3: 27, and they laid everything down at the feet of Him Who gave them all to them in the first place.
Beloved brethren, these actions of both the the twenty-four elders and John the Baptist are very essential part of worship when it comes to God. If we must worship God and expect Him to accept our worship, we must, while coming to worship Him, drop ourselves, whatever we may think we are. We must see ourselves as nothing. Reduce yourself to nothing before Him. That is when you can be said to be worshipping God and expect Him to accept your worship.
But when you come dressed in the garb of a position you were borrowed to use for some time, and expect God to accept your worship, you deceive yourself.
As we round off this morning, you will be worshipping God truly, not when you changed your voice to make it very sweet to the hearing of people, not when you could dance "more than your neighbours", not when you superfluously lifted your hand in the church, but when you reduce yourself to nothing before Him Who sits on the Throne! You worship Him, ONLY WHEN YOU DECREASE YOURSELF AND ALLOW HIM TO INCREASE!
Finally this morning, worship is not a physical thing; it always carries with it, a deep spiritual involvement which the ordinary eyes can never see. Worship has the power to transform or transfigure the worshipper, such that they become another thing to the ordinary eyes that can not comprehend the experience (Matthew 17: 1 - 9; Philippians 2: 5 - 9). Another reason we must reduce ourselves to nothing in worshipping God is that worship is meant to glorify God, not ourselves, as espoused by our Anchor Scripture for this series.
Till tomorrow when we shall meet
again on this beautiful journey of FINISHING STRONG together, please, keep
keeping on in Him!
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N.B. Please, pray that
God will teach you to always reduce yourself before Him that you may have the true experience of worship before Him. Amen.
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questions, please call: 07064694037 or send a mail to bwgospelministries@yahoo.com
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