DAILY ENCOURAGEMENT WEDNESDAY – WORSHIP.

What is worship? Worship is to feel in your heart and express in some appropriate manner a humbling but delightful sense of admiring awe and astonished wonder and overpowering love in the presence of that most ancient Mystery, that Majesty which philosophers call the First Cause, but which we call Our Father Which Are in Heaven. - A.W. Tozer.

God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth." – John 4:24.

I love to worship, not just at Church or only on a Sunday, but most of my waking time. It comes in many forms, for instance, I was reading Better Bibles Blog today, and this led me to Rick Mansfield's Blog about the, Good News Bible. This was the first Bible I ever read from cover to cover, and I loved it, although my favourite BIBLE, after reading many, many versions, is the TNIV.

However, as I was reading through Rick’s post, it brought back a flood of memories of when I first got saved, and although I was happy today, I started to cry and worship the Lord, I was so thankful that after twenty six years, I was still loving Him with all of my heart, still thankful, still excited, still serving, still obedient, and still worshipping!

Here are some definitions of worship…

To worship God is to recognize his worth or worthiness; to look God-ward, and to acknowledge in all appropriate ways the value of what we see. The Bible calls this activity "glorifying God" or "giving glory to God," and views it as the ultimate end, and from one point of view, the whole duty of man (Ps. 29:2; 96:6; 1 Cor. 10:31).

Scripture views the glorifying of God as a six fold activity: praising God for all that he is and all his achievements; thanking him for his gifts and his goodness to us; asking him to meet our own and others' needs; offering him our gifts, our service, and ourselves; learning of him from his word, read and preached, and obeying his voice; telling others of his worth, both by public confession and testimony to what he has done for us. Thus we might say that the basic formulas of worship are these: "Lord, you are wonderful"; "Thank you, Lord"; "Please Lord"; "Take this, Lord"; "Yes, Lord"; "Listen everybody!"

This then is worship in its largest sense: petition as well as praise, preaching as well as prayer, hearing as well as speaking, actions as well as words, obeying as well as offering, loving people as well as loving God. However, the primary acts of worship are those which focus on God directly -- and we must not imagine that work for God in the world is a substitute for direct fellowship with him in praise and prayer and devotion. - James Packer, Your Father Loves You.
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Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) was present at the Vienna Music Hall, where his oratorio The Creation was being performed. Weakened by age, the great composer was confined to a wheelchair. As the majestic work moved along, the audience was caught up with tremendous emotion. When the passage "And there was light!" was reached, the chorus and orchestra burst forth in such power that the crowd could no longer restrain its enthusiasm.

The vast assembly rose in spontaneous applause. Haydn struggled to stand and motioned for silence. With his hand pointed toward heaven, he said, "No, no, not from me, but from thence comes all!" Having given the glory and praise to the Creator, he fell back into his chair exhausted. – Daily Bread.

Keep worshipping!

Loving Father, I thank you that you are continually working in me, and I take great comfort and encouragement from that. I also thank you for the Holy Spirit who helps me to worship you. I pray I may always have a worshipping heart, that I can continually bring glory to your name. I ask this in the wonderful and mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Be encouraged.
GBYAY