Veroni's Views

Last week I wrote about God renewing our strength.  Today I want to write about one of the ways we can open the avenue for God to pour his strength into our lives. 

Our prayers normally consist of two elements.  Intercession and thanksgiving.  Today I want to focus on a third element, namely worship.  Everything we do for the Lord is worship, in fact, our whole life is supposed to be worship.  Yet, if everything is worship, then worship may turn out to be nothing.  That means, if we don’t define worship well, we may end up not really worshipping God

When Jesus says (John 4.23, 24) the Father seeks people who worship Him in Spirit and truth, He seems to be talking about something very specific and intimate.

Torrey (R.A.Torrey, What the Bible Teaches, p472) says : “When we pray, we are taken up with our needs; in thanksgiving we are taken up with needs that have been met; in worship we are taken up with God himself.”

Worship takes place when those who are born again come by faith into the presence of God in love, respect and wondering amazement with the exclusive desire to please the Lord.

There is a passage in the Bible where this is modelled.  In fact, it is so important that all four Gospels (Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 7 and John 12) have the description, although the person at the centre of the event was probably different.

At a time when there is much concern about gender-based violence, this passage is absolutely appropriate, because the main character in the passage is a woman, although she might not be the same person in each passage.

Luke 7.37 and 38 talks of a ” woman in that town who lived a sinful life (that) learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume.  As she stood behind him at his feet (the custom was that one would recline at table, with one’s feet behind one) weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.”

She was absolutely focused on Jesus.  An uninvited guest who was known to be a sinner, in the home of a Pharisee, she had only one objective and that was to minister to Jesus.    

She did not care what other people might think of what she was doing, knowing that there would be negative comments, as the rest of the narrative tells us.       

She spared no expense.  Pouring perfume on his feet from an alabaster jar, meaning that it was expensive.  In another similar event, even the disciples were indignant at the sacrifice of the woman and exclaimed “Why all this waste?”  (Matthew 26.8)     

Her unashamed appreciation of Jesus, what I would call worship, prompted the Lord to speak of “her great love”. (Luke 7.47)

The behaviour of this woman and the manner in which Jesus responded affirms to my mind the words of Torrey quoted before: that “in worship we are taken up with God himself.”

It also affirms my own conviction about worship.  I am repeating it, because I think it is all-important:

Worship takes place when those who are born again come by faith into the presence of God in love, respect and wondering amazement with the exclusive desire to please the Lord.

May the Lord stir your heart to worship God in the manner I believe He seeks.  A practical tip:  If you find yourself at a loss on how to find the right words, read and pray the words of Psalms 93 and 95-100.

May God bless you and may your prayer life be enriched.

Let me close with worship from Ephesians 3.20-21:

“Now to You who are able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine, according to your power at work within us, to you be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!  Amen”