The Discipline of Worship - Part 1

Psalm 95:6 "Come, let us bow down in worship. Let us kneel before the the Lord our Maker."
It is really hard to adequately define what worship is, so I am going to give you Don Whitney's definition, "To worship God is to ascribe the proper worth to God, to magnify His worthiness of praise, or better, to approach and address God as He is worthy. As the Holy and Almighty God, the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe, the Sovereign Judge to whom we must give an account, He is worthy of all the worth and honor we can give Him and then infinitely more."
In order for us to be worshiping, we have to be focused on God, who He is and what He has done. Worship is how we respond to that knowledge. Worship is not about us.
Worship is to be done in spirit and in truth. There needs to be a balance of these two things. It cannot be just truth, where we are only focusing on facts about God and His works without any kind of heartfelt reaction about these 'facts.' It cannot be simply emotion directly vaguely towards that which is spiritual. Worship has to be a sincere reaction to our knowledge of who God is.
It is not always easy to worship God. We all have hard days and trials that make worshiping God. It is by remembering who God is and what He has done that we are able to worship during these hard times. Its easy to worship when life is good and things are going our way. We need to press on in worship even when times are hard.
Don't wait until you 'feel' like worshiping. If necessary, start by focusing on your Savior, Creator, Sustainer, and Father. Start by thinking about the works of God, what He has done in your life and the lives of those around you. Read the Old Testament and look for passages where God does tremendous and miraculous things to make His Name known. As you turn your mind towards the things of God, your heart will naturally follow.
Tomorrow we will discuss different opportunities for worship.