Yet the time is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. Indeed, the Father is looking for people like that to worship him.God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
John 4:23-24
Jesus bypasses all the controversy of the past and says Worship Him by the Spirit of God and truly from the heart. That is what God wants.
The Jews have two words which are set in stark contrast.
halal and chalal the letters even look the same. But the meaning is so different.
We live in an age where it is easy to allow things to disturb our thinking in the middle of worship. We are so easily distracted, letting the common things interrupt the sacred. Think how you feel when you are talking with someone and their cell phone goes or they get a text and proceed to text back. The person on the end of the phone is seemingly more important than you. Now imagine how God feels. In the midst of worship we stop to take a call or a text. Even worse respond to it. It happens, I have seen it happen. The question is: does it happen with you? Treating the sacred things as though they are commonplace.
Does your worship come from your heart or from your mind or somewhere else? This is what Jesus is saying – let your worship be pure and unadulterated, not mixed with anything else. It matters not where you worship or how you worship (to a degree) but Who you worship and whether your worship is pure.
God not only loves a cheerful giver, He honours a sincere singer.
Anon
This Sunday put yourself into the lyrics of each hymn, considering them your own personal credo. See what a difference it makes.
Ian Vail
Worship changes the worshipper into the image of the One worshiped.
Jack Hayford