There is nothing that defines or develops our lives like our worship of God. We attend worship services and participate in worship each week. Some of our worship is done individually before God in our private times, and some of it is done publicly in worshipping God with others. In both private and public worship, the more important aspect of it is what God does in us, more than what we are doing for God.
God delights to reveal himself as the glorious triune God that he is, presenting himself to us as the Father who is worthy of our worship, and the Son who has made us worthy to worship, and the Spirit who points us to the Father through the Son by his indwelling and enlightening ministry of the Word. In other words, worship begins with God’s revelation of himself to us and in us and through us.
But our worship also requires our response and participation. Our liturgy, whether old-form or new-form, or somewhere in-between must be faithful to the Scriptures and move us to a Spirit wrought and Scripturally taught experience of God. As the Bible says: …true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him (John 4:23).
Imagine that! God is looking forward to our worship of him, not because he needs it, but because we need it. In worship we are transformed by him, and he gets the glory.
