Worshiping and Glorifying God - Part 10: Impediments to Worship – Not knowing God:

Impediments to Worship – Not knowing God (i):

   We have seen that to worship God is to give God the glory, reverence, awe, honor, exaltation, praise, thanks etc. that He is worthy of and rightfully deserves (Psalms 96:8). Just as unless we know about a person we can neither speak about any of his qualities, nor exalt or glorify him before others; similarly unless we know the attributes, qualities, works, capabilities, stature, power, wisdom etc. of God we cannot glorify and worship Him. Just as the more closely and personally we know the person, the better we are able to speak about him, similarly the closer and more personally and experientially we know God, the better we will be able to worship and glorify Him. To know about a person is not the same as actually knowing a person, though in either case we can speak about that person to some extent atleast. But worshiping God in truth can only be when we actually know Him.

   I recall an incidence that occurred quite some time back with me; I was having a conversation with one of my close friends, and in that conversation the name of a then important and very high ranking national leader came up. Without breaking the conversation, taking that leader’s first-name very casually, my friend remarked, “Oh him! I know him very well”; then, continuing on in the same breath, he looked at me with a twinkle in his eyes and a mischievous smile on his face and added, “but whether or not he knows me is a different story altogether!”

   The fact of the matter is that my friend knew only about that leader, but did not know him in the sense of having a personal and close relationship with him. Although he could have narrated many things and could have talked at length about that person, but this was no proof that my friend and that leader had a close personal relationship and knew each other well. The same situation exists with many of us regarding our relationship with God. We know about God, we can speak up many things about Him by virtue of our intellectual knowledge about Him, but the only thing that matters is do we have a close and personal relationship with God; have we experienced Him first-hand? Is it not that most of the times we only know about Him, and not actually know Him personal and close? Is it not true that for most, their relationship with God is perfunctory, casual, superficial and mechanical so as to fulfill some ‘religious’ requirements, practices and rituals?

   Even the Born Again children of God – how well do they actually and experientially know their heavenly Father; know His desires for them; know of the expectations He has from them; know His will and assigned work for them; know His Word that He has given to guide and teach them His ways? Is it any wonder then that even Born Again Believers find it very hard to open their mouths and worship God or even utter a few words of thanks for Him publicly? 

(To be continued…)

Worshiping and Glorifying God - Part 9: Victory through Worship

Victory through Worship

We had started on the theme of Worshiping and Glorifying God, and seen that prayer is about receiving from God while worship is about giving to God. To learn and understand the blessedness of worship and of giving for God, we have been looking into examples from God’s Word illustrating the theme of giving and getting from God; and essentially these examples and illustrations have been related to physical or material things, but with a spiritual angle as well.

We will conclude this sequence with a final example that illustrates how giving worship leads to victory and abundant blessings. Please read through 2 Chronicle 20; paucity of space does not permit a full discourse on this chapter. Very briefly stated, the Godly king Jehoshaphat finds himself under an impending attack by a collective army of the Ammonites, Moabites and Edomites. Realizing his perilous situation, he turns the matter over to God and involves his people to pray for deliverance by divine intervention. God assures him that God will fight for him and he will suffer no loss; all he had to do was prepare his army, take them to the battle site and set them in battle order and then sit still to see what the Lord will do (2 Chronicles 20:14-17). Jehoshaphat and his people accept the Lord’s message and worship Him for it (vs. 18-19). The next day king Jehoshaphat led his army to the battle-site, but marching ahead of the army were people praising and singing to the Lord (v. 21); and “Now when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated” (2 Chronicles 20:22). After the attackers had been annihilated, it took Jehoshaphat and his people three days to gather the spoil from their dead enemies (vs. 24-25); following which they all gathered again to worship the Lord in the valley of Berachah (vs. 26-27).

Jehoshaphat and his people prayed once, but worshiped thrice, out which the first two instances of worship were in very difficult and trying circumstances where defeat and death were staring at them in their face. Now read again the instructions given to them by God through Jahaziel (2 Chronicles 20:14-17); at no place will you find mention of God asking for worship – God only asked for them to go to the battle-site, position themselves and then stand still to see what He does. But their Faith in God and in the promised outcome, prompted and encouraged them to worship God even before He had acted, and quite understandably after He had acted on their behalf. In the battle field, it was as they worshiped that God started to act (v.22) and the enemies were eliminated. Their giving worship to God not only got them victory in an impossible situation, but also got them an unexpected bonus of abundant wealth.

Learn to have faith and worship God in and for difficult and inexplicable situations in your life instead of worrying, complaining, grumbling and being despondent about them, or seeking the help of the world for being delivered from them; the results will be stupendous beyond imagination.

We will now start looking into impediments to our worship, things and factors that keep us from truly worshiping God.