Mark 12:30 says "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength".
God wants all of us. He wants our heart, our soul, our mind and all of our strength. The place we worship is not as important as why we worship and how much of ourselves do we offer to God when we worship.
What type of worship pleases God?
1. Accurate Worship
Worship must be based on the truth of the Scripture and not our opinions about God. To worship "in truth" means to worship God as he is truly revealed in the Bible. We cannot create a comfortable or politically correct image of God and worship it. That is idolatry.
2. Authentic Worship
Worship is your spirit communicating and thus responding to God's spirit. Worship must be genuine and heart felt. We must worship God with deep emotions and feelings in which God has given us. God wants our honest, real love. Worship must be accurate and authentic. God-pleasing worship is deeply emotional and deeply doctrinal.
Often times in church, worship is synonymous to the music sung. This is a warped perception. Real worship happens when your spirit responds to God. The best style of worship is one that must authentically represent your love for God based on the background and personality God gave us. Remember, God made all of us unique. Hence our worship towards God should also be unique. This would then essentially be an authentic worship.
However, the biggest distraction in worship is ourselves. Our interests and our worries over what others think about us. God just wants us to be ourselves.
Extracted from More than Life by Hillsong United
All Day
Verse 1:
I don't care what they say about me
It's all right, all right
I don't care they think about me
It's all right, they'll get it one day
Pre-Chorus
I love you, I'll follow you
You are my, my life
I will read my Bible and pray
I will follow you all day
Verse 2:
I don't care what it costs anymore
Cos' you gave it all and I'm following you
I don't care what it takes anymore
No matter what happens I'm going your way
------------------------------------------------------------------------- Read the lyrics to All Day
3. Thoughtful Worship
We must engage our mind when we worhsip God. That is loving God with all our mind. We must be able to think of fresh words and ways to honour God so as to avoid offering cliches in worship. Be specific. That means praise God in a manner that best reflects on the current situation.
4. Practical Worship
God wants us to live for him. However, the one thing that is hindering our worship for God is our self-centeredness. We worship God not for self-gratification or for others to see and be awed. We worship God because we truly love God with all our heart and all our mind and with all our strength.
Worship takes effort and energy. Worship is essentially a sheer act of a willing sacrifice. The heart of the matter (of worship) is a matter of the heart. How much your heart is willing to worship God defines the manner and depth of your worship for God.
Are you willing to worship God in a manner that pleases him?
----------------My personal sharing based on the book Purpose Driven life by Rick Warren with extraction from Day 13 - Worship that Pleases God.---------------
