Worship Definitions
Throughout history the definition of worship has been a much-debated question.
Recently I’ve been trying to find a simple way of defining worship. To capture a phrase that expresses worship as a response affecting the whole of our lives but also communicates the wonder and spleandour of who God is. In one sense there will never be enough words in our vocabulary to adequately accomplish this. After many drafts here’s my attempt at a simple definition of worship.“Worship is the total alignment of our heart, soul, mind and strength with the will of God. It is our whole-hearted response to God’s extravagant love and mercy.”It’s a great exercise to do. It would be fascinating to hear other definitions of worship - either something you’ve come up with, or something you’ve heard or previously read. Post your comments below.
Chris Sayburn
From Worship Central // Leeds Adviser
12 July 2008 - 8:50pm
After reading loads of books and trying to study this very topic I try and explain it as...
"An all consuming response to the love, worthiness and glorious works of the Triune God"
or for our younger ones.... "All of me for all of Him"
www.chrissayburn.com
Worship is to consciously glorify God, flowing from a heart of awe for His majesty and a willingness to submit to His authority
http://noordegraaf.wordpress.com/
Worship is to consciously glorify God, flowing from a heart of awe for His majesty and a willingness to submit to His authority
http://noordegraaf.wordpress.com/
Worship is just showing god you adore him. dictionary definition of worship.
I agree more with the previous two posts, worship is a declaration of the worth of something. This differs slightly from the other definitions in that it can be far from perfect in its direction and its implementation.
I'll try to explain my reasons for thinking this (and I'm no theology student and may well be wrong, I'd be interested to hear how you came to your conclusions)
The Bible uses the word worship to mean expressing admiration for all sorts of deities which are flawed understandings of the One True God, eg. Acts 17:23 (altar to an unknown god) Romans 1:25 and Colossians 2:18 (worshiping things rather than the Creator, angels). Tim's and Chris's definitions are, I think, most like the worship we find in Revelation, which is definitely what we should be aiming for, but my understanding is that we can never achieve "total alignment...with the will of God" while still in this imperfect world. God doesn't require perfection from us (thanks to Jesus' sacrifice) nor does he need to be told how good he is, but He delights to hear from us when we try to turn towards him, however poor our understanding of him is.
If asked to give a definition of Christian worship, mine would be closely based on Romans 12:1 (living sacrifice) ie. surrendering everything to God as a response to understanding something of his grace. In that case, we should be aiming for our whole lives to be continual acts of worship. That means trying to glorify God in everything we do, and as I am sinful I can't always manage to make that "whole hearted" or "all consuming". I tend to do it best when focussing on God, eg. when praying, studying the Bible, singing, playing music, chatting about Christianity with friends etc, but it should come into every aspect of my life, and if I find an area of my life where I'm not worshiping God, ie. not surrendering that aspect of my life to him, then that's something I try to sort out.
That's my understanding of it, I'd love to hear what other people think!
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