What it means to worship God from the heart

“This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me”. (Matthew 15:8,9)

During the course of a recently friendly conversation, a Muslim excused himself, to pray. We have all noticed Muslims going aside to observe the hour of prayer, as stipulated by the Koran. Some public places such as airports, provide prayer space, particularly for Muslims. This may not only be impressive but also serves as a reminder to all of us, of the commandment to worship God. 

The Bible invites believers to pray always. The Catholic Church, likewise, stipulates prayer intervals, known as the liturgy of hours (breviary), for all the faithful, and an obligation for clergy and religious. 

Worshiping God is essentially a way of honouring Him. It means recognizing His honour and ascribing it to Him in all the ways appropriate to His glory and worth. Every occasion to worship God is a privilege of encountering and seeing Him with eyes of faith. The manner of worshipping God may vary from religion to religion, but the essence would be the same. 

It is vital to know that God cares about how we ought to worship Him. Our worship is meant for Him not for ourselves. It must be unconditional; not expecting anything in return. Worship means sacrificing ourselves to God, even when things go wrong. Knowing and observing this is an important step for our own sanctification. 

God is love. True worship is devoting our lives out of love and not out of obligation or legalism. The heart is where our motivations and passions are. True worship is when our hearts are fuelled with love to do what God loves and to denounce what He hates. The best way to worship God is to be a living sacrifice. Jesus came to teach us how to worship by sacrificing His priceless life for His friends and for the glory of God. 

From the beginning of creation, God has rejected people’s worship, unless it is grounded in faith and devotion to Him. Cain was the world’s first faithless and loveless worshipper. God rejected his sacrifice because it lacked faith and love for God. Abel, however, devotedly worshiped God, and God loved Him (Genesis 4). God acknowledged the sacrifice of Abraham, because it was out of great faith and devotion to Him (Genesis 22).

God wants genuine and real worship; nothing fake for a show. The Pharisees of Jesus’ day have very elaborate worship rituals that were to be kept to infinite detail and woe to the one that varied those details. For example, the keeping of the Sabbath was so incredibly important as a detailed ritual that when Jesus healed a person on the Sabbath they accused Him of blasphemy. Sometimes it’s easy to worship the ritual more than the object of the ritual. This is what Jesus is referring to when He says, “These people honour me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” 

God is pleased by the worship of the upright (Proverbs 15:8). All of our good deeds have little meaning to God if our hearts are not righteous and devoted to Him. Paul recommends that the Lord’s Supper be taken in a worthy manner; short of that, we would be committing sacrilege (1 Corinthians 11:27). In preparation for proper worshiping of God, we need to examine our own consciences and see if there is sin in us to repent of. 

Worship is also genuine when it is grounded and results in love of neighbour. Jesus emphatically says that one ought to leave their offering at the altar and go reconcile with one’s brother before they worship (Matthew 5:24).

Even though God is pleased by His children worshiping Him in this life, no matter how repentant we may be, our worship is tainted, because we are not totally righteous. But there will come a day when we will worship God perfectly, in the company of angels and saints, because our bodies will be perfect and glorified.