Worship of God

“ The worship experience consists in the sublime attempt of the betrothed Adjuster to communicate to the divine Father the inexpressible longings and the unutterable aspirations of the human soul—the conjoint creation of the God-seeking mortal mind and the God-revealing immortal Adjuster. Worship is, therefore, the act of the material mind's assenting to the attempt of its spiritualizing self, under the guidance of the associated spirit, to communicate with God as a faith son of the Universal Father. ”

“ But to depend upon other things besides the one is idol worship. The true worship of God, the highest worship of God, is to live so near to God that we can, at all times, feel that power that can do everything, will do everything, is doing everything. ”

“ It is only under the influence of high spiritual elevation and joy that God’s holiness can be fully apprehended or rightly worshipped. The sentiment that becomes us as we worship the Holy One, that fits us for knowing and worshipping Him aright, is the spirit of praise that sings and shouts for joy in the experience of His full salvation. ”

“ First, then, worship is not the formal thing it is generally supposed to be. It is not a mere smoothness of the hinges of the knees, or a readiness to take the name of God within one's lips. It is a natural going forth of the heart to that which one loves, trusts, and reverences most. ”

“ Worship thou God in such wise that if thy worship lead thee to the fire, no alteration in thine adoration would be produced, and so likewise if thy recompense should be paradise. Thus and thus alone should be the worship which befitteth the one True God. Shouldst thou worship Him because of fear, this would be unseemly in the sanctified Court of His presence, and could not be regarded as an act by thee dedicated to the Oneness of His Being. ”

“ We are carnal and cannot bring God the worship He seeks. But Jesus came to give the Spirit: He has given Him to us. Let the disposition in which we set ourselves to pray be what Christ's words have taught us. Let there be the deep confession of our inability to bring God the worship that is pleasing to Him; the childlike teachableness that waits on Him to instruct us; the simple faith that yields itself to the breathing of the Spirit. ”

“ Jesus Christ to be Worshipped, Hence God: Jesus Christ is to be worshipped by men and angels; and worship is an honor to be paid only to true Deity. The angels of heaven refuse the adoration we call worship. ”

“ THE WORSHIP OF GOD THERE are those who in religious matters, as well as in all other departments of life, are content to walk unquestioningly the path which the footsteps of previous generations have made easy and familiar. But there are others and these among the more thoughtful and earnest minds to whom it is not enough to utter earnest words concerning enthusiasm and devotion, consecration and worship. ”

“ The power of God is the worship He inspires. That religion is strong which in its ritual and its modes of thought evokes an apprehension 269of the commanding vision. The worship of God is not a rule of safety—it is an adventure of the spirit, a flight after the unattainable. ”

“ Still, let it be a matter settled between God and the soul, that your longing for holiness is that you may be fitter for Him to use, and that what He has given you of His Holiness in Christ and the Spirit is all at His disposal, waiting to be used. Be ready for Him to use; live out, in a daily life of humble, self-denying, loving service of others, what grace you have received. You will find that in the union and interchange of worship and work, God’s Holiness will rest upon you. ”

“ But true worship would begin—the worship of a Deity who is all and only good; while in every worshipper would be kindled an enthusiasm for righteousness, a passionate resolve to “work together with God” for the elevation and amelioration of the race. ”

“ But we may by this see, that true worship is an inward work; that the soul must be touched and raised in its heavenly desires by the heavenly Spirit, and that the true worship is in God's presence. When shall I come and appear? ”

“ Worship is the symbol of veneration and of honour. Let us understand that there are different degrees of worship. First of all the worship of latreia, which we show to God, who alone by nature is worthy of worship. ”

“ What angels, then, are we to believe in this matter of blessed and eternal life?—those who wish to be worshipped with religious rites and observances, and require that men sacrifice to them; or those who say that all this worship is due to one God, the Creator, and teach us to render it with true piety to Him, by the vision of whom they are themselves already blessed, and in whom they promise that we shall be so? ”

“ Who so says that he loves God, but does not love his neighbor, in him there is no divine charity.
We have seen, therefore, how the three divine virtues are the foundation of the Christian life, and that their practise constitutes Christian life. The true worship of God consists in practising these virtues which, at the same time, are the sole way to eternal bliss. ”

“ Thus far we have spoken of the worship given directly to God as the infinitely perfect Being. It is clear that adoration in this sense can be offered to no finite object. Still, the impulse that leads us to worship God's perfection in itself will move us also to venerate the traces and bestowals of that perfection as it appears conspicuously in saintly men and women. Even to inanimate objects, which for one reason or another strikingly recall the excellence, majesty, love, or mercy of God, we naturally pay some measure of reverence. ”

“ These moral perfections constitute God a proper object of religious adoration, and without which no worship would be due or could be rendered to him. The Divine Nature is the foundation of that worship which we, as rational beings, are under obligations to perform; and the revelation of the will of God, with which he has graciously favored us in the Scripture, is the constant rule of his worship. ”

“ But it finds its expression in worship, for worship is the Godward aspect of life. It expresses, it emphasizes, it helps to make permanent the feelings that mould life. It is the recognition that our life comes from God: that it has been redeemed by God; it is the quiet joyous resting upon the facts of His love; it is the conscious spiritual offering of our life to God; it is the adoration of His majesty. This worship the Church leads and organizes. ”

“ God, and not man; God, and not the work of men's hands; the Creator of all, and not the creature of men's fancies. Thou art the God who hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, the upper and lower world, and all the creatures that are in both." Thus we Christians distinguish ourselves from the heathen, that, while they worship gods which they have made, we are worshipping the God that made us and all the world. ”

“ But though this worship has regard to God himself, and is offered to him alone; yet far be it from us to believe, that God has any need of our adoration or service, or that he receives any advantage from it, or any addition to his perfection. ”

“ Worship is no other than the utter giving of ourselves, giving as Christ gave, "Who being originally in the form of God, thought it not a thing to be grasped at to be equal with God, but emptied Himself, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men"; giving as the blessed Virgin gave when she gave, as she must have thought and have been willing to give, her whole reputation among men in response to the call of God; giving complete, in which there is no withholding. That is worship, sacrifice, the pure gold of self-oblation. ”

“ But it is possible to think of the power of worship from another point of view. God never takes but He gives. What He appears to take He gives back with His blessing, and we find the restored gift multiplied manifold. So in the very act of our worship God confers on us power. ”

“ Some people may think that it does not matter how people worship, that God will accept of their worship, anyhow. But from what we read of His dealings in the Bible, we find it a matter of the greatest importance. ”

“ And as we begin to know Him in His infinite righteousness, in His fiery burning zeal against all that is sin, and His infinite self-sacrificing love to free the sinner from his sin, and to bring him to His own perfection, we shall learn to wonder at and worship this glorious God, to feel and deplore our terrible unlikeness to Him, to long and cry for some share in the Divine beauty and blessedness of this Holiness. ”

“ Lastly, when such strong and repeated declarations and injunctions interspersed through the entire volume of the Old Testament, unequivocally show the will of God to be, that no other object of religious worship should have place in the heart or on the tongue of his own true sons and daughters, can it become a faithful child of our Heavenly Father to be seeking for excuses and palliations, and to invent distinctions between one kind of worship and another? ”

“ Such great care did idolaters take for the keeping up of the worship of gods made with hands, while the worship of the true and living God is neglected, and few nations or cities glory in patronizing and protecting that. ”

“ Our definition cannot be exactly true; for, in its exactness, worship means the sum total of all the feelings that should be felt by the mind of man, when he contemplates God through the mediation of "the World with Christ." Who can enumerate these without confessing that he may have passed over some so subtle and so deep that language itself has left them unnamed? We must therefore be content with a rough definition. But if it be roughly true that worship means love, trust and awe, what practical inferences may we thence deduce as regards our own conduct? ”

“ In worship we spread out our insignificant life, which yet is the work of the Creator's hands, and the purchase of the Redeemer's blood, before the Eternal and All-Merciful, that we may learn the manners of a higher sphere, and fit ourselves for companionship with saints, and angels, and for the everlasting sight of the face of God. ”

“ Every Christian, in order to life everlasting, must worship God as his first beginning and last end. This worship is to be performed, first, by faith, which makes both the understanding and the will humbly adore and embrace all those truths which God has taught, however obscure and incomprehensible they may be to our weakness. 2dly, By hope, which honours the infinite power, goodness, and mercy of God, and the truth of his promises; and, upon these grounds, raises the soul to an assured expectation of mercy, grace, and salvation, through the merits of Jesus Christ. ”

“ Every duty is holy, and devotion to duty is the highest form of the worship of God; ”

“ And after this can I bow down to a conception, a mere idea of God? Can I worship simply because others have worshiped? Our Bible and our Christ tell us of a wonderful life; a great Heart touched with the feeling of our infirmities ”

“ But the old leaven breaks out. They sin and ‘forget the covenant of their God.’ The worship of other gods, a worship in itself sensual and ending in the foulest sin, leads the way to a life of harlotry. ”

“ Giving or sacrificing unto God for the sake of God is an act of worship.
From Acts 2:42, Acts 20:7, and many other Scriptures that could be listed, we learn that teaching and studying the Bible are also commanded of God’s children; and that, likewise, is worship.
In Ephesians 5:19 we read these words, “Speaking unto yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to 89 the Lord.” And in Colossians 3:16, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom ”

“ A mere form of worship avails nothing; we must obey the commandments. "Not every one that sayeth to me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven." This Gospel is restored to the earth, and everybody may know it for themselves. ”