The Way Of Life Of A Lover Of God

Hi, Jesus loves you.

How often do you worship God? Worship is God’s food and it is the only thing He cannot give Himself. Every lover of God has worship unto God as a way of life. It is an act that comes naturally to anyone that truly loves God. This post explains more on how a true lover of God is to worship God.

But You are holy, O You Who dwell in [the holy place where] the praises of Israel [are offered] – Psalm 22:3 (AMP)

I APPEAL to you therefore, brethren, and beg of you in view of [all] the mercies of God, to make a decisive dedication of your bodies [presenting all your members and faculties] as a living sacrifice, holy (devoted, consecrated) and well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable (rational, intelligent) service and spiritual worship – Romans 12:1 (AMP)

Worship unto God is not just singing songs to God but reverence and honour unto God. When we worship God we honour Him; we recognize His supremacy and awesome nature. God is seeking people who will really worship Him in spirit and in truth – John 4:23

It is only a true lover of God that can worship God in spirit and in truth (acceptable worship). This is because your heart needs to be fully involved and you need to have a good knowledge of God. Both conditions must be met for you to be able to worship Him acceptably.

The more you know God, the more you appreciate and love Him, the more you worship Him. Worship unto God is an expression of your relationship with God. When you truly worship God, you are sold out to God and God desires that you worship Him.

Worship should be a way of life for you if you love God: in your words, thoughts and deeds. You are to honour God with everything in and around your life; it also means that God’s opinion concerning them should matter to you.

Worshipping God in words

This is the most understood way of worshipping God. You worship God when you sing to Him, mostly slow songs that talk about God and His nature. Your heart needs to be connected with the wordings as you sing for you to truly reverence Him with your singing. At this time, no other thing crosses your mind but God and all about Him.

When you truly connect in your praises with God, God comes down to inhabit them – Psalm 22:3. He doesn’t send Angels to receive them for Him; He comes personally to receive them. And when He comes He never leaves you the same way He met you. One thing you will surely encounter among other things is His awesome love for you.

When Paul and Silas praised God, He came down to receive it. And the foundations of the prison were shaken, the doors were immediately opened and everyone’s chains were loosed because of God’s presence. In addition, the Jailer and his household were saved because of God’s manifestation in response to the praise – Acts 16:25-34.

Lifting holy hands

I call this a level of worship unto God. As you connect with God, you will discover that you will have a strong desire to raise your hands towards heaven. Paul encourages us in 1 Timothy 2:8, to lift up our hands unto God as we pray, (Worship is a form of prayer).

I remember some years back, during a youth service, we were worshipping God and I suddenly desired to lift my hands up but I tried not to, because nobody was doing so. I felt people would wonder at me, but the Holy Spirit reminded me that God’s opinion is what matters. So, I lifted my hands and I was happy I did.

Kneeling down

Another level I have noted is that of kneeling before God while singing or praying. It is an act of reverence unto God. You are to kneel before the Lord your maker, in reverent praise and supplication; for He is our God and we are the people of His pasture- Psalm 95:6-7.

In some African countries like Nigeria, you don’t give a king or an elder anything without kneeling down, especially when they are sitting down. It is a sign of respect and honour to him.

So also when you get deeper in your worship unto God you will suddenly cease to sit or stand (whatever position you were) anymore while worshipping Him. You will kneel down to give God all the glory that is due to Him.

Prostration

This is to lay flat, face down on the ground in humility, submission or adoration unto God. This is what I call the highest level of position of worship when you are singing or praying. It takes a lover of God to prostrate before God; it is total submission unto God’s authority and power.

It is a bit difficult for a Christian to lay face down on the ground before God. This is because it is total surrender to God’s will: your opinion or desire becomes totally insignificant. It requires that you absolutely trust God’s judgment and perfect plan for your life.

In Matthew 2:11, the three wise men, when they saw baby Jesus with the mother, they prostrated before Him and worshipped Him. Also in 1 Samuel 5:3, the people of Ashdod rose up and saw that their god had fallen face down on the ground before the ark of the Lord.

Again in Revelation 4:9-10, whenever the living creatures offer glory and honour and thanks to God, the twenty-four elders fall prostrate before Him and worship Him. That shows that when you really worship God, standing or sitting or even kneeling down is not the ultimate position to assume.

Therefore, your ability to prostrate before God in worship tells a lot of your relationship with God and your level of reverence for God. There is a point you get to, you will have no words to express your appreciation and silence becomes the best thing to do. You stay and drink in of God’s love and glory.

Now, you may ask, “how can I prostrate in church where there is no space for that?” Yes, there may be no space for you to fall face down on the ground, and again you may be too conscious of the cleanliness of the ground. All these will hinder you from yielding to the Holy Spirit. But if you make out time to do so at home, then any time you have a nudge to prostrate before God you will not hesitate to do so, no matter where you may be.   

Worshipping God in action

Your actions also can either honour or dishonour God. God is a God of knowledge by whom actions are weighed – 1 Samuel 2:3. Worship goes beyond singing with our lips, it includes every other thing that you do. It involves your way of life; how you represent and value God before people.

This is the reason Paul was appealing to us in Romans 12:1 to make a decisive dedication of our bodies, as a living sacrifice unto God. And he called it our reasonable service and spiritual worship. Every lover of God will certainly ensure that his way of life honours God at all times.

I read an article titled “Food as Worship” by Brett McCracken, where he, a Christian and an aspiring chef said that making the best possible product with the food God gave us is his act of worship.

I have also heard that sex within the context of marriage is worship unto God. Truly, our lifestyle should always reverence the supremacy and awesome power of our God.

Virginity

Keeping your virginity as a single person is an act of worship unto God. It is reverence unto Him who created sex and gave the boundaries within which it can be enjoyed.  It is also respect unto the Holy Spirit who dwells in you if you are a believer, for you are His temple and God demands that you honour and glorify Him in your body – 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

You dishonor God when you join your body with another in fornication. Every other sin is outside the body but the sin of immorality is against your body – 1 Corinthians 6:18.

In the past, the pagans were sacrificing young virgins to their gods as sign of worship. Your ability to keep your virginity because of God shows your fear of God and your readiness to obey Him.

Joseph when tempted to lose his virginity chose to flee rather than sin against God. He called it great wickedness – Genesis 39:9.  Keeping your virginity and not defiling the bed glorifies God.

Appearance

You are Christ’s bride (2 Corinthians 11:2, Ephesians 5:24) and so how you look per time is very crucial. Your appearance should represent God effectively. How you look speaks a lot about you and it certainly describes your relationship with God.

Like a wife dressing for her husband, our appearances should always glorify Christ our bridegroom. Why should anybody mistake you for a harlot when you are betrothed to Christ? This is the reason Paul said we should dress modestly – 1 Timothy 2:9.

The lover of God dresses appropriately, knowing that her bridegroom is watching. She honours Him everywhere she goes by her appearance.

Worship offering

You also worship God with your offerings. This is the reason it is called worship offering. You reverence and honour God with your substance – Proverbs 3:9. Every lover of God is a giver and he gives cheerfully and willingly.

God said in Exodus 23:15 that no one is to appear before Him empty-handed. That means you should not attend services without an offering for God. The person who loves God will eagerly package his offering to worship God with it.

When you have to struggle within you or be cajoled to give offerings and tithes, as written in Malachi 3:8-10, then your love for God is in question. You can’t love and not give, though you can give and not love.

Worshipping other gods

God will not share His glory or praise with another god – Isaiah 42:8. You are not to worship any idol but the Lord, for He is a jealous God – Exodus 34:14

An idol is anything that comes before God in your life. As a lover of God, you should always put the Lord as number one in your life, not your career, money, children or reputation. When you worship other gods you incur the wrath of God – Jeremiah 44:1-6

When God brought out the Israelites from Egypt, they soon turned to idol worship because Moses was not around, and God’s wrath came upon them. And about three thousand men of the people died because of the sin – Exodus 32:1-28.

You shall have no other gods before God and you are not to bow down to any gods nor serve them – Exodus 20:3-5

Worshipping God in thoughts

Like in words and actions, God expects us to worship Him in our thoughts too. God sees our hearts and reads our thoughts. And He warned us that as a man thinks in his heart so is he – Proverbs 23:7.

God gave us in Philippians 4:8 the characteristics of the kind of thoughts He approves. Your thoughts need to be true, noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report, and it must have virtue and be praiseworthy. You are encouraged to meditate on these things.

Now the summary is that a lover of God worships God as a way of life. He is never coerced into it but it comes out naturally from him. He delights in worshipping God with everything he has and does: spirit, soul and body. And he does it in spirit and in truth, with his whole heart and a deep knowledge of God.

What other ways can you worship God?

Ngozi Nwoke

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Image by Lindsay Anne