When Jesus met and talked to the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4:1-26, His words changed how we worship of God and our knowledge of how to encounter Him forever. Gone was the understanding and perception that God could only be encountered in the Temple or in places that were designated holy. Jesus revealed to us that God is spirit and since God is spirit he can be present everywhere at the same time without confinement.
J.I. Packer writes,
….the true condition of acceptable worship is not that your feet should be standing in Jerusalem or Samaria, or anywhere else for that matter, but that your heart should be receptive and responsive to his revelation.
Preach it, Packer.
Our worship is not about where we are, where we’ve been or where we’d like to be. It is about God, in his omnipresence, meeting us in Spirit and giving us the opportunity to encounter Him. Experiencing the spirit of God wherever we happen to be, combined with the Truth about God’s character are the keys to being consumed in worshipping the Father.
So our worship is not about where we are and its also not about what we do. Or neglect to do.
In the end, its not about us. News flash. It never has been, regardless of whether we believe that or not. The problem is, when we turn the focus back to ourselves it becomes a selfish endeavor rather than a spiritual offering. A buddy of mine, Shawn, who is a fellow blogger and terrific bass player, wrote a blog about when the focal point shifts back to ourselves when a worship service didn’t “meet our needs”. Its a great read and I recommend you read it right now.The blog brings up some great points about how we turn worship into something about us, not about God. With this mentality, it really doesn’t matter where God is, because we’re too consumed with ourselves to see anything else.
Look beyond yourself to see God all around you. Look past what you think God needs to look like and you’ll find He’s much greater than you could imagine.
Have a great week!
-SHF
P.S. Recently I’ve been listening to The City Harmonic and Page CXVI and I highly recommend you check them out if you haven’t already.
