Why does God want our worship?

If any man wants our worship, it will immediately raise questions about him. So, when we hear God wants us to worship Him, the same question comes to our mind. But God is not a man! He is love personified, and He is also absolutely holy and righteous. He has no selfishness or any ego to satisfy.

He wants us to worship Him because that is the best way we can learn to have a right relationship with Him. Without coming to terms with who He is and who we are, we cannot have a proper relationship. Without such an understanding of our relative status, some of us will tend to look at God as one like us (Ps.50:21). But He is God and we are only created beings, owing to His pleasure even to exist. He is the maker of all laws we are subject to, including the laws of nature and moral laws. He is not only the Saviour but also the Judge. When we look towards Him and worship, we begin to come into a healthy place in front of Him.

Worship is not about songs. Songs are one way to easily express our worship, but essentially, to worship God is to adore Him, as we observe who He is and take the appropriate stance of humility, gratitude, awe, fear, respect, submission, etc. Jesus said, "But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers" (Jn.4:23). Our words will bring worship only when they are true and they come from our spirit. We can see immediately how we can spend a lot of time beautifying the lyrics, melody, musical and video presentation and finally fail because they are not coming from a true heart! How about if we are singing to impress people with our voice or instruments?

"Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship" (Ro.12:1). A true recognition of who God is, before whom we are standing, will lead us to submit to His authority and rule. An absence of obedience to God plainly indicates that that man has not understood God. He has not understood that one day he will have to give an account for everything he has done in his life, including thoughts, intentions, words and action (He.4:12,13). It is easy to observe that many who think they are Christians are taking this carelessly, thinking that the blood of Jesus is there to cover them! If this fear of God is lacking, they cannot become wise in the way of salvation, and that is the reason many are not experiencing transformation into the likeness of Christ.

Does worship have to be only in the church? Jesus clarified to the Samaritan woman that worship need not be on this mountain or that, but that it must come from spirit in truth. This makes it possible for us to adore God everywhere, as we think of Him and submit to Him. Even in church, the goal is to direct our hearts to look at God and see Him clearly so that worship will just flow out!