The True Essence of Worship

By Dwayne Moore

Deuteronomy 6:4-5 says,“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” I believe these two verses are central in helping us grasp acceptable worship to God. We must love him completely, which means surrendering to Him as our only Lord. Anything less than our all yielded to Him is not Biblical worship!

Jesus verified the priority of worship when he quoted from Deuteronomy 6:5-6. You may recall one of the religious leaders asking Jesus this question: Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”( Mark 12:28-32 – NLT)

Maybe you’ve heard someone ask, “Isn’t the Christian life really just a bunch of ‘Thou shalt nots’?” The answer is no. In fact, the Christian life is actually one big “Thou shalt’… love God.” It’s really that simple: worship Him completely.

Rick Warren said that worship is simply “bringing pleasure to God.” So here is a question for us. Which do we prefer to be around: those who bring us pain or those who bring us pleasure? Pleasure, of course. Our heavenly Father prefers those kind of people as well. Those who worship Him in spirit and in truth bring him pleasure. Jesus told the woman at the well that God seeks those kind of worshipers. He actually looks for them.

I can’t speak for you. But, as He scans across the millions of believers here on earth, I so want Him to see and ackowledge me. I long to hear Him say, “Hey, there is one who brings me pleasure.” I can imagine Him pointing and saying, “Look, I found one. Right there he is. That child of mine truly worships me all the time, anywhere. His heart is passionately in love with me. I accept his worship as truthful, holy and pleasurable.”