Today’s Devotional: “It’s Not Where We Worship”

Jesus said to the Woman at the Well, “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23-24)

Jesus is throwing the religious establishments on their heads. They said it’s all about where you worship, like Mount Gerizim for the Samaritans, or the Temple in Jerusalem for the Jews, but Jesus says it’s not about where we worship, rather it’s about who and how we are to worship.

Now, to worship God in truth is to worship God in accordance with what He has revealed about Himself in His word, because as Jesus said, “Sanctify them (that is, set them apart from the world) by Your truth. Your word is truth.” (John 17:17)

We are to worship God as He has defined Himself in the Bible, not according to our own thoughts as to who He is, or what we believe He should be. That is called idolatry.

But not only are we to worship God in truth, but also in spirit. Now, the Holy Spirit is the stream of living water that flows from out of every believer in Jesus Christ (John 7:37-39), and we are to worship the Lord in and through the Holy Spirit, who Himself is God.

But here, we are told to worship God “in spirit,” not in ‘the’ Spirit. And so, while we do worship in the Holy Spirit, we are to also worship in spirit, that is, from the very core of our being we are to worship God. It’s not through a lot of the superficial stuff that happens when we sing our praises to God, which is part of it, but it is singing it from the depths of our souls.

In other words, it’s not so much through our voices that we worship God, but it’s in and through our hearts, where we worship God being totally and completely in love with Him.

(This is part of Sunday’s Message of the Woman at the Well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nskXHSfaD54)