OPEN HEAVENS DAILY DEVOTIONAL DATE : WEDNESDAY 3rd JUNE 2015........

THEME : THE TRUE WORSHIPPERS
Memorise:
God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in
spirit and in truth. John 4:24
Read: John 4:21-24
21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh,
when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem,
worship the Father.
22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for
salvation is of the Jews.
23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true
worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for
the Father seeketh such to worship him.
24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship
him in spirit and in truth.
Message
It is not all acts of worship that God accepts, because not all
worshippers are true worshippers.
The truth was revealed by Jesus in His conversation with the
Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. He also revealed some other
great truths about worship that we should pay close attention to
if we want our worship to be acceptable to God.
The first of these is that any “God” that is limited or restricted
to particular place is false and not worthy of worship. Worship
directed towards such contraptions of men is counterfeit
worship.
The worship of the true God does not involve going to a
junction where three roads meet to put food items for God to
come and eat. Paul came across worshippers of such gods at
Mars’ Hill in Athens (Acts 17:22-31).
The true God is described thus by the Psalmist in Psalm 8:1:
“O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!
Who hast set thy glory above the heavens.”
Another truth about worship which Jesus revealed is that any
god that does not have a fatherly relationship with his
worshippers is not worthy of our worship. Anyone worshipping
such gods is not a true worshipper. This is why Jesus came to
make us children of His Father.
Also, when He was teaching His disciples how to pray, He
described the true God as “Father” (Luke 11:2). Furthermore,
Jesus revealed that our worship of God is not true worship if we
do not know the God we are worshipping. This is the reason
why Paul tried to introduce the Athenians to the God they were
ignorantly worshipping (Acts 17:23). He tried to teach them that
they were wrong to think that the Godhead could be
represented by gold, silver or stone graven by art and man’s
devices (Acts 17:29).
No worshipper should ignorantly think that a Holy God will
accept worship from a life laden with the sin of falsehood,
pretence and all manner of immorality and wickedness.
True worship involves worshipping the true God in spirit and in
truth, we must worship God in spirit because God is a Spirit,
and only through the spirit can we relate meaningfully with His
Spirit.
To worship God in Sprit means to do what He bids you to do
with a spiritual mind of faith. These are things the Holy Spirit of
God would ask us to do that viewed with a carnal mind, are
difficult to understand. For example, when God asked Noah to
build a big ship on dry ground, to men of his generation, this
was not a sensible thing to do. That a person should stick to
one spouse “for better, for worse” may not sound reasonable,
but that is what the word of God says.
A true worshipper of God will not tell lies even if there is no
risk of being found out. To a true worshipper, being truthful is
not about man but about God who is all-knowing.
Prayer Point:
Father, grant me grace to live a life of acceptable worship
through Your Spirit in Jesus’ Name.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR : 1 KINGS 7:1-8:11 and LUKE 2:22-40
AUTHOR : Pst E. A ADEBOYE