The meaning of worship

Living a life of worship involves giving ourselves unto God by acknowledging Him as our creator, our source, our sufficiency, owner of all things and also expressing honour, gratitude, appreciation, reverence, and humility to God. By doing this we ascribe to God the credit for everything in our lives and also this helps us give ourselves to God as a sacrifice that is pure and true so this means that true worship involves both our attitude and actions.

There are two meanings for worship in the bible which is one in the Old Testament and one in the New Testament. In the Old Testament worship is called SHACHAH in the Hebrew and it is used to reveal attitudes of worship as being humility, respect and reverence towards God, which results in the physical postures of kneeling and bowing down.  In the New Testament the word for worship is PROSKUNEO means to kiss towards like when a dog licks the master’s hand.

These two words make us understand that true worship is a lifestyle of honouring God for who He is and having a life of deep love, submission, loyalty, dedication and obedience to God so we give all to Him. Revelation 4:11

tells us, “You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power; for you created all things, and by your will they exist and were created.” We were created for this very purpose; to worship.  

Isaiah 43:7

says, “Everyone who is called by my name, whom I have created for my glory; I have formed him, yes, I have made him.” Reading these verses lets you know that everything was created to give God glory and worship because He made it that way and we must do what we were created to do and that is to WORSHIP.

When it comes to worship there are two elements that worth taking note of they are the person who is giving worship and the person who is receiving worship. The one giving worship is the believer because God desires to be worshipped and also He deserves our worship has our Father. God is the receiver of our worship because He is the Almighty and there is no one else who we can worship but Him alone. We as Christians are giving worship unto God as the creator of everything because He deserves our worship from a pure heart and by doing this we show God how much He is worth to us. The more you worship Him shows how much you think of Him, if we give Him less worship that means we don’t respect and reverence Him enough to worship Him.

The bible tells us that God is the only one we should worship and serve. “Thou shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall thou serve” (Matthew 4:10

).  “Thou shall worship no other god, for Jehovah whose name is jealous, is a jealous God.” (Exodus 34:14

). Worship is a principle that has been from the creation of man, and it is only attributed to God and no other gods. This is the primary duty of man on earth; God alone is worthy to be worshipped.

Human beings were made to worship, some may not be sure if they worship or not but we all worship a higher source, something or someone. The majority of people worship their job, some worship money, some worship possessions, some worship movies, some worship TV stars or music icons, some worship sports personalities and some people worship themselves cause of their status in life. So we can see that people worship something but even though everyone engages in some sort of worship some think that they do not because they do not understand the true meaning of worship. 

Jesus spotlighted that fact with the words: “…and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with your entire mind…”this is the great and first commandment!” (Mark 12:30

, NIV).When we live and obey the great and first commandment then we can fulfil the great commission because it all comes down to LOVE.