A Life of Worship
When Jesus said that those who worship must worship in spirit and truth, He was referring to living a life of worship, not your Sunday worship. In a world of noise, distraction, and the many roles we live, how would we do that practically? Let's explore...
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Dr Rennie Du Plessis
7/6/20255 min read
‘Worship’ comes from the word ‘to kiss,’ it is face-to-face in the most intimate form of love, with nothing hidden. No wonder the word for ‘truth’ used here is ‘not concealing’! If we are concealing, we are not worshipping in spirit and truth and cannot live a life of worship fully. With your spirit restored to God’s image through your rebirth, your spirit will not operate outside truth because it functions in the light. So, we not only disconnect ourselves from God, but we also disconnect ourselves from the power of our renewed spirit if we insist on hiding. And that creates blockages in your life and prayer and stops the light of God from flowing into and through you, which is an expression of a life of worship. The light can’t fully function in those areas. 1 John 1:5-7 “… God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all wrong.”
Darkness is that state devoid of light and God. The word ‘darkness’ in the scripture above means ‘obscurity’, which in turn is defined as ‘devoid of light, hidden’. Any part of us that remains hidden or devoid of the light of God does not operate in the sameness of God re-established through redemption. It remains in obscurity. That thinking part of your mind cannot look or act like God, nor will it yield to the plan of God: a life of worship. It’s contrary in nature and makeup and has opposite goals to God.
Nothing develops and grows in the dark. But we are commanded to love ourselves so we may love others, yet we cannot love what we do not know. If we don’t expose the broken parts of us to the light of spirit and truth, we influence our re-established sameness with God. Those parts are not fully revealed and known to us because they are hidden. We can’t love those parts or grow those parts in the light, nor can we connect those areas to God in a life of worship. He speaks and lives in truth, and everything is in the light.
God’s love holds us as we open up to being fully whole and live a life of worship. 2 Corinthians 5:14 states, “For the love of Christ compels us.” ‘Compel’ means literally ‘to hold together’ 'to grip tightly.’ What a beautiful picture of the love of God! It holds us together and holds onto us. No matter how much you’ve been hurt, betrayed, or how scarred you are, you are of God, and He in you is greater than all your scars, wounds or past. Hiding has not served you; it’s only stopped some areas of your life from healing and growing. It’s not proven to be a good defence for you, so open it up to the light and be renewed so you can grow, expand and live a life of worship fully.
Your truth is how truthful your life and living are. Are you genuine, or are you living behind a mask? Jesus poses this very question to a Samaritan woman living a life of repeated hiding patterns. He takes her beyond the state her hiding thinking has produced and brings her to her need – the light found only in Him. Let’s read John 4:23-24, where Jesus says, “…true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” Most of the time when we quote John 4:24, we do so in relation to our congregational time of praise and worship. Upon closer inspection, we will see that Jesus was teaching about living a worshipful life. Jesus was showing the Samaritan woman that her hiding in habitual wrongful patterns in the relationships she chose could be ended by living in worshipful spirit and truth. He takes her beyond her state and points to her need by offering Himself as the solution.
Jesus is still the solution to our hiding patterns. Just like the Samaritan woman at the well, our hiding and our wrong thinking and wrongdoing habits only keep us from the reality of a life of worship. This is not just about worship in church but living a life of worship. To walk in the light, you need to live in spirit and truth.
Seek God, sit in the light with Him, and willingly allow His light to shine in those areas. The more you repair yourself as an image bearer of God in light, the less concealment you need and the more your life reveals God.
We can hide from God by simply not doing what we know we should do. “You were taught, concerning your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” Ephesians 4:22-24 NIV. The new self allows us to operate in "true righteousness and holiness." We put off the old, and we put on the new, and we do it with a mental change of attitude which leads to action. Choosing to change and following through with the right action is part of the daily growing that happens in a life of worship.
God loves you and desires your fellowship in face-to-face encounters with no concealing. He may create seasons where you are forced to confront what was buried so you can find the freedom of healing. This is not punishment but the evidence of a loving God showing you which areas to tweak in your life to gain more from the light and grow in fellowship with Him in your life of worship.
Purification is ongoing for all believers to grow a life of worship. By going into prayer regularly with a willing heart for God to tweak you and do some ‘drain cleaning’, the Spirit can flow and manifest in a clean environment. God wants this for you. Using your own spirit to light up your inner world to guide you in which areas of your life need light and where you need to change and grow. Proverbs 20:27 “The human spirit is the lamp of the Lord that sheds light on one’s inmost being.” NIV.
Choosing a life of worship releases the flow of God's power in your life and through you to the world! If you would like to explore this further, I suggest 'Growing in God's Light'. Click the button below to learn more and also click the subscribe button for more great monthly content delivered to your inbox once a month.
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