WORSHIP-DEFINED

Worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness, the nourishment of the mind with His truth, the purifying of the imagination of His beauty, the opening of the heart to His love, the surrender of the will to His purpose.

William Temple

Worship is the submission of all of our nature to God

William Temple

Worship is a way of gladly reflecting back to God the radiance of his worth. This cannot be done by mere acts of duty. It can be done only when spontaneous affections arise in the heart.

John Piper

Desiring God, 1996, p. 83, Used by Permission, www.desiringGod.org.

The nature of true worship is worship that does two things: it expresses the feeling of God's value and greatness; and it seeks to sustain in the congregation that same spiritual sense of God's immense worth and beauty. Or to put it another way, true worship: comes from a heart where God is treasured above all human property and praise, and it aims to inspire the same God-centered passion in the hearts of the congregation.

John Piper

Used by Permission, www.desiringGod.org.

Worship is basically adoration, and we adore only what delights us. There is no such thing as sad adoration or unhappy praise.

John Piper

Desiring God, 1996, p. 19, Used by Permission, www.desiringGod.org.

Worship is an inward feeling and outward action that reflects the worth of God.

John Piper

Worship: The Feast Of Christian Hedonism, Sermon. September 25, 1983, www.desiringGod.org, Used by Permission.

Worship is a believer's response to God's revelation of Himself. It is expressing wonder, awe, and gratitude for the worthiness, the greatness, and the goodness of our Lord. It is the appropriate response to God's person, His provision, His power, His promises, and His plan.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss

A Place of Quiet Rest, Moody, 2000, p. 211.

Worship is the honour and adoration which are rendered to God by reason of what he is in himself, and what he is for those who render it.

J.N. Darby

The word worship comes from the Saxon word weorthscype, which later became worthship. To worship God is to ascribe the proper worth to God, to magnify His worthiness of praise, or better, to approach and address God as He is worthy. As the Holy and Almighty God, the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe, the Sovereign Judge to whom we must give an account, He is worthy of all the worth and honor we can give Him and then infinitely more.

Donald Whitney

Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, 1991, p. 87, Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com, All rights reserved. For more information please see the website www.BibicalSpirituality.org.

Worship often includes words and actions, but it goes beyond them to the focus of the mind and heart. Worship is the God-centered focus and response of the inner man; it is being preoccupied with God. So no matter what you are saying or singing or doing at any moment, you are worshiping God only when you are focused on Him and thinking of Him.

Donald Whitney

Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, 1991, p. 88-89, Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com, All rights reserved. For more information please see the website www.BibicalSpirituality.org.

True worship is neither its own end, nor a feeding of the gods, as in the pagan mentality. It is a response of the believer to the grace of God, offered freely and in conformity with the fact that the believer loves God and is only too happy to have the honor of giving to Him that portion of the believer’s wealth that already belonged to God anyway.

Douglas Stuart

An Exegetical and Expository Commentary on the Minor Prophets, Thomas McComiskey ed, Baker, 2000, p. 1355.

Worship is adoring contemplation of God.

R.A. Torrey

Worship is a total life orientation of engaging with God on the terms that He proposes and in the way that He provides.

Mark Dever and Paul Alexander

While it’s simplistic to say that worship is love, it’s a fact that what we love most will determine what we genuinely worship.

Bob Kauflin

Worship Matters, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org, 2008, p. 25.

Worship cannot be isolated or relegated to just one place, time, or segment of our lives. We cannot verbally thank and praise God while living lives of selfishness and carnality. That kind of effort at worship is a perversion. Real acts of worship must be the overflow of a worshiping life… As God warms the heart with righteousness and love, the resulting life of praise that boils over is the truest expression of worship.

John MacArthur

The Ultimate Priority, Moody Press 1983, p. 13.

Without such a vision of God’s holiness, true worship is not possible. Worship is not giddy. It does not rush into God’s presence unprepared and insensitive to His majesty. It is not shallow, superficial, or flippant. Worship is life lived in the presence of an infinitely righteous and omnipresent God by one utterly aware of His holiness and consequently overwhelmed with his own unholiness… If you have never worshiped God with a broken and contrite spirit, you’ve never fully worshiped God, because that is the only appropriate response to entering the presence of Holy God.

John MacArthur

The Ultimate Priority, Moody Press 1983, p. 79.

Worship is our innermost being responding with praise for all that God is, through our attitudes, actions, thoughts, and words, based on the truth of God as He has revealed Himself.

John MacArthur

The Ultimate Priority, Moody Press 1983, p. 127.

Worship is simply glorifying God; this means there is nothing required of us that cannot be done as an act of worship.

John MacArthur

Worship is giving God the best that He has given you. Be careful what you do with the best you have. Whenever you get a blessing from God, give it back to Him as a love gift. Take time to meditate before God and offer the blessing back to Him in a deliberate act of worship. If you hoard a thing for yourself, it will turn into spiritual dry rot, as the manna did when it was hoarded. God will never let you hold a spiritual thing for yourself; it has to be given back to Him that He may make it a blessing to others.

Oswald Chambers

My Utmost for His Highest.

Worship is not an external activity precipitated by the right environment. To worship in spirit is to draw near to God with an undivided heart. We must come in full agreement without hiding anything or disregarding His will.

Erwin Lutzer,

Pastor to Pastor, Kregel, 1998, p. 80.

Worship is the direct acknowledgment to God, of his nature, attributes, ways and claims, whether by the outgoing of the heart in praise and thanksgiving or by deed done in such acknowledgment.

W.E. Vine

For worship is, essentially, the reverse of sin. Sin began (and begins) when we succumb to the temptation, “You shall be as gods.” We make ourselves the center of the universe and dethrone God. By contrast, worship is giving God his true worth; it is acknowledging Him to be the Lord of all things, and the Lord of everything in our lives. He is, indeed, the Most High God!

Sinclair Ferguson

A Heart for God, 1987, p. 111-112, by permission Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA.

Worship is the loving ascription of praise to God for what He is in Himself and in his providential dealings. It is the bowing of our innermost spirit before him in deepest humility and reverence. Worship is the adoring contemplation of God as he has been pleased to reveal himself in his son and in the Scriptures.

Oswald Sanders

Nothing is more important than our understanding of worship, for our concept of worship is inescapably tied to our understanding of God and His sovereign authority to reveal the worship He desires, deserves, and demands.

Albert Mohler

Worship According to the Word, Table Talk, Jan. 2005, p. 63. Used by Permission.

Worship is an act which develops feelings for God, not a feeling for God which is expressed in an act of worship.

Eugene Peterson

A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, InterVarsity Press, 1980, p. 50.

True worship, therefore, must begin with a heart attitude of bowing or prostrating oneself in adoration and reverence before the One Who is being worshiped.

Ron Owens

The Worship Service: A Hindrance or a Highway for Revival, Revival Commentary, v. 2, n. 2.

Worship is first and foremost a feasting on all that God is for us in Jesus… [One] in which God is the host, the cook, the waiter, and the meal itself.

Sam Storms

The simplest way to define worship is that it is to attribute worth to God’s revealed character. The command to “ascribe to the Lord the glory due to His name” in Psalm 29:2 does not mean we add anything to God. It simply means that we acknowledge Him for who He is and in this way glorify or honor Him. This is precisely what is being done in heaven (Revelation 4:11, 5:12).

Bill Thrasher

A Journey to Victorious Praying, Moody Publishers, 2003, p. 208.

[Worship is] the specific act of ascribing to God the glory, majesty, honor, and worthiness which are His.

Jerry Bridges

The Practice of Godliness, NavPress, 1996, p. 49-50, www.navpress.com, Used by Permission.

Worship: The spontaneous expression of the heart to the glory of God.

Author Unknown