PART 4 - SPIRIT AND TRUTH
What about this idea of worship? Has that ever tripped you up or rubbed you the wrong way? Now, it’s possible that you’re someone who has always thought that if there was a God, then, of course, obviously, you would certainly worship Him—you just haven’t found Him yet. But for many people, the idea of just “standing in awe” of some God feels pointless and, regardless, would make God in some way definitely not worth seeking. Why would God ask for such attention? It seems ridiculous.
On the other hand, wouldn’t the God most worth seeking also be the God most worth worshiping? Think of all the things in the world you think are really great—maybe things like great musicians, or great authors, or great architecture, great works of mercy, anything great. Now, you certainly would praise these things (or else, why call them “great”). In fact, the greater you think they are, the more you find them praiseworthy. Praising God, or anything currently functioning as your God, is worship.
Simply put, you will worship God in the exact proportion that you, in your most sincere heart, believe God to be great. Until God’s greatness is apparent to you, there’s really nothing to worship. If you can only see God as the One responsible for every unacceptable thing in life, why would anyone suggest you worship such a God? People who hate the opera but go to the opera anyway are only foolishly troubling themselves.
So don’t force yourself to go to the opera. You’ll worship when the time comes. If you ever were to see God, “high and lifted up,” you would stand in awe. We all would. Worship is a result of seeing God rightly. Consider what Jesus said to some Pharisees:
“You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me—in vain do they worship Me.’” -Jesus
The worship of the Pharisees, and all hypocrites, is vain. It’s based in nothing, and profits nothing. It’s all lips and no heart. To offer God words of praise from a distant heart is to worship vainly. God has no desire for you to “worship” Him if it’s not from the heart.
“True worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit—those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” -Jesus
It should be very clear by now that God does not want any hypocrisy. Worship must be true. As long as God is very small, or nothing, in our thoughts, worship will be the same for us. So, we worship Him in truth, or not at all—for there’s actually no worship other than in truth. Anything false in worship changes it from worship into vanity.
Now might be a good time to mention “far” and “near”. What does it mean to have a heart “far away” from God? You might think of it like this: from where you are right now, there is an “up” and “down”, a “in front” and “behind”, and “left” and “right”. We all understand these dimensions. There is, in addition, in some real way, also a spiritual “dimension”, though we cannot directly see or measure it. We can move “toward” God or “away” from God, spiritually. We can “lift” our souls; they can be “cast down”.
So, if your heart is far from God, don’t pretend. Offering false worship can only move your heart further away. Instead, lift your heart, your distant heart, to God, and admit that you do not see Him as great, at least not yet. Until you can give Him true worship, at least give Him honesty. A little further down the path, you may find such honesty actually is worship. How? If you think a God-worth-seeking is worth being honest with, then your God is now worth something to you—He’s worth your honesty. Ascribing worth to God is worship. We do tend to overcomplicate all these things.
Lastly, perhaps you noticed that Jesus again shared an extra detail—that God Himself seeks those who also want truth. God is working from the other side, spiritually, seeking you. God, most desirously, wants you to succeed at knowing Him. So, reach out to God, seeking to know if He might actually be worth knowing. If you find that He is worthy, you can tell Him. It’s alright. If it’s true, He’ll be glad to hear it!