“Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and by Your will they existed and were created” (Revelation 4:11).

As Christians, we are called to a life of worship and praise. We are often reminded throughout the Bible of the importance of praise and worship in our relationship with the Lord. The Bible tells us to enter into God’s “gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise” and to “give thanks to Him and bless His name” for His goodness, unfailing love and faithfulness to all generations (Psalm 100:4–5).

Worship is an integral part of fulfilling the first and great commandment to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Matthew 22:36–38; Mark 12:29–30). That’s a call for rich, deep, and full love—a love-Him-with-everything-you’ve-got love. It is our heartfelt response to the invitation to enter into relationship with God. The Father is so passionate about being in relationship with us that He sent His only Son, Jesus, to bridge the gap between Himself and humanity (John 3:16). That’s how much He loves us, and we are called to the same love in our relationship with Him (1 John 4:19 NKJV).

Our love for God results in our desire to draw close to Him (James 4:8), to build a deep relationship with Him, and to grow into His likeness (2 Corinthians 3:18). To do so, we commit to spending regular time communing with Him in prayer and reading His Word. We express our love and gratitude to Him through our worship and praise and by living our lives in a way that will honor and magnify Him and exalt His name (Psalm 34:3).

When speaking with the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus said: “The hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him” (John 4:23–24). From this we learn that God, who is spirit, seeks those who will worship Him in spirit and truth. We who love God and want to please Him will seek to worship Him—with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength—because He desires this.

God alone is worthy of our worship. Worshipping Him means reverencing Him and ascribing proper worth to Him; it is acknowledging, expressing, and honoring His unparalleled worth and excellence. “Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness” (Psalm 29:1–2).

The basis of God’s worth is found in His nature and character, in who He is. He is the Creator of all things visible and invisible (Colossians 1:16). He is all-powerful, all-knowing, unchangeable, infinite, eternal, present everywhere. He is wisdom, truth, faithfulness, goodness, love, mercy, grace, patience, holiness, righteousness, justice, and more. While we, as beings made in the image and likeness of God possess a small measure of some of these attributes, God is these attributes. He is infinitely greater than we are and is therefore worthy to be worshipped. “From him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever” (Romans 11:36).

Besides being the Creator, He is our Redeemer. He made a way for us, as sinners, to be reconciled to Him. He acted through Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross to bring salvation to all who believe in and accept Him as Redeemer. He redeems us from sin and death (Romans 5:10–11). Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, we now have the privilege and honor of being able to come into God’s presence directly in prayer, praise, and worship.

As we come to know God more, to understand His love and power, all He has done and constantly does for us, we understand more clearly that our response to Him should be praise and worship.

Expressing our worship

Christians are called to worship both privately and publicly (or corporately). The expectation is that we will worship together with other Christians at times (Hebrews 10:24–25), “singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (Colossians 3:16). When we gather with others to praise the Lord and to pray together, Jesus promised, “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20 NKJV).

Corporate worship, however, isn’t enough; we are called to worship Him individually as well. In the Gospels we read that Jesus often arose early in the morning and went off by Himself to commune with His Father (Mark 1:35; Luke 6:12). Being relationally close to God requires that we commune with Him in worship and prayer; that we respond to Him with love, honor, and reverence; that we praise and thank Him; that we delight ourselves in Him (Psalm 37:4).

Worship is more than a set routine of prayer, praise, and singing; it is spiritually entering into God’s presence. Praise is foundational to our worship, and is meant to permeate our attitudes, our perspectives and our thoughts (Philippians 4:8). The Psalms are filled with words of praise that we can echo in our times of communion with the Lord.

Thanksgiving is an integral part of worship as well, as we express our gratitude and give thanks to God for His goodness and many blessings. In fact, we’re told to always give thanks to God, for everything, in all circumstances (Ephesians 5:20; 1 Thessalonians 5:18). Our lives are meant to be “overflowing with thankfulness” (Colossians 2:7). There are countless things to be grateful for, and as we intentionally identify them and express our gratitude to the Lord for them, thankfulness becomes part of who we are.

Worship should be part of our conversation with God throughout our day. When we look at God’s creation, we can give honor, praise, and thanksgiving to the Lord for His unfailing love and His wonderful works (Psalm 107:8). When we meditate on His Word, when we think of the blessings He has bestowed upon us, the mercy He has shown us, the grace He has so freely granted us, these are all times we can worship Him (Psalm 8:3–5).

When we praise Him for His power, His presence, His omniscience, it reminds us that He is always here, that He knows everything about us, that He created us, and that He knows the thoughts and intents of our hearts. Remembering this can strengthen our resolve to do our best to live in accordance with His Word, to treat others with love, and to do to others as we want them to do to us (Luke 6:31).

An important way that we worship the Lord is through our service to Him and others. The apostle Paul referred to such sacrifices as “holy and pleasing to God” and “true and proper worship” (Romans 12:1 NIV). Elsewhere, Paul wrote, “This service that you perform is … overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God” (2 Corinthians 9:12 NIV). Jesus called us to let our light shine before others, so that they may see our good works and give glory to our Father who is in heaven (Matthew 5:16).

Worship is not simply an activity—it is a lifestyle of loving, serving, and glorifying God and reflecting His love and truth to others. As we come before Him in thanksgiving and praise; as we express our deep love for Him; as we reverence and honor Him, and live lives that glorify Him, we worship God as He seeks to be worshipped—in spirit and in truth. The more we verbalize who God is and what He has done, the more present He becomes in our daily lives, and we grow in our understanding of the breadth and length and depth of His unfailing love for us (Ephesians 3:18–19).