Day 6. Spirit and Truth Worship

Day 6 — Spirit and Truth Worship

Writer: Noah // Divergent Church Canberra

Scripture:

“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks.”

John 4:23–24

Theme: Spirit and Truth

Prayer Focus: Anchoring our lives in him.

Reflection:

Many people feel a tension between truth and emotion, or, ‘the mind’ and ‘the heart’.

However, in the Bible, this is a false dichotomy. Our emotions are neither our highest authority, nor are they to be ignored, they are to be presented to God and processed in prayer and worship.

In the same way, intellectual knowledge reveals some truths, but many truths are experienced too “may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully…” (Eph 3:18–19).

The reality, like so many things in the Bible, is that both are balanced together. The Father seeks worshippers who worship in Spirit and in truth.

True worship comes from truth.

There is sometimes a tendency to detach emotional experience from truth. However, as J. I. Packer notes, “Truth becomes hard if it is not softened by love; love becomes soft if it is not strengthened by truth. [We are called…] to hold the two together, which should not be difficult for Spirit-filled believers, since the Holy Spirit is himself ‘the spirit of truth,’ and his first fruit is ‘love.’

There is no other route than this to a fully mature Christian unity.”

Take a moment to reflect. Are there any areas where I have been hiding from truth? Avoiding truth? Have I been living with a facade in any areas of my life?

True worship flows from the Spirit.

The good news is not simply an idea … but a reality that has seized us and a Person we have encountered.

The Holy Spirit continues to pour God’s love into our hearts, and this becomes the basis for true worship.

The challenge of the Christian walk is to let this reality ‘seize us’ on a day-to-day basis … to be filled … so that our desires, and then our actions, are bound up with His. Am I consciously aware of the Holy Spirit in my worship?

God is looking for worshippers.

James K. A. Smith writes, “Worship works from the top down, you might say. In worship, we don’t just come to show God our devotion and give him our praise; we are called to worship because in this encounter God (re)makes and molds us top-down. Worship is the arena in which God recalibrates our hearts, reforms our desires, and re-habituates our loves. Worship isn’t just something we do; it is where God does something to us. Worship is the heart of discipleship because it is the gymnasium in which God retrains our hearts.”

If worship is the medium through which God forms us, v24’s phrase that “these are the kinds of worshippers that the Father seeks” is a reminder and challenge that God desires worship, not just for Himself but for our own re-formation in His image. Have you ever considered that God is seeking your worship?

I am sure you have had times that have felt profound experiences in worship at some point. However, while God works through our emotional experiences, the risk is that we can seek an experience rather than seeking Him. Reflect on the thought — when have been the times that I have used worship to seek an experience? When have I sought Him for Himself?

Prayer:

Father, before we reached for you, you came for us. Make us into the worshippers you are seeking, and forgive us for the times we wanted nearness without surrender, or truth without transformation. Too easily, our hearts drift towards what feels familiar or impressive instead of simply wanting You. Let our worship be honest, humble and full of joy. And teach us again and again … and again … that to be found by You is better than to be admired by others. We ask this in the name of Jesus, the true Worshipper. Amen.

Personal Reflection:

Reflection Questions:

1.     Are there areas of my life where I have been avoiding truth or substituting emotional experience for genuine surrender to God?

2.     How consciously aware am I of the Holy Spirit’s presence and work when I worship, both privately, corporately and in my every day life?

3.     In this season, what might it look like for my worship to be less about seeking an experience and more about seeking God Himself?