Spiritual Disciplines: Worship

What is worship?

The practice of expressing praise, thanksgiving, adoration, etc.

In the ot, worship encompassed a variety of activities. Bringing forward an offering to God was an act of worship. Bowing down in the presence of God was an outward display of an inner attitude of reverence before the Creator. The verb רוּם (rûm) could indicate that a person was “lifting up” or “exalting” God with praise. People both bow before God and lift him up in praise and wonder.

The verb הָלַל (hālal) could be used to designate the act of celebrating God.

The word “hallelujah” is derived from the Hebrew phrase הַלְלוּ־יָהּ (halĕlû-yāh), meaning “praise Yahweh.”

“The term worship is sometimes applied to all of a Christian’s life, and it is rightly said that everything in our life should be an act of worship, and everything the church does should be considered worship, for everything we do should glorify God.” - Grudem

“Worship is an act of glorifying God. Yet all aspects of our lives are supposed to glorify Go.” -Grudem

NCC; Q1 - What is our only hope in life and death?

NCC; A1 - That we are not our own but belong, body and soul, both in life and death, to God and to our Savior Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 4:17–32 ESV

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.