The Essentials of True Worship

Worshiping God is not about having a great voice or talent. It is about having your heart in the right place. That is what God is interested in more than anything else. God looks on our hearts when we worship. And He wants us to worship in spirit and in truth.

In John 4, we find the account of Jesus’s conversation with the woman at the well, a woman who had been married and divorced five times and was living with a man at present. Here was someone who obviously was looking for her Prince Charming to fill the void in her life. But she hadn’t found him. And as Jesus began to share the truth with her about how she could know the living God, she became a little uncomfortable. So she tried to change the subject.

But Jesus told her she had it all turned around. He said, “Believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. . . . But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth” (verses 21, 23–24).

With these words, Jesus gave us the fundamental elements of true worship: in spirit and in truth. Notice also that Jesus said the Father “is looking for those who will worship him that way” (verse 23).

Right now, God Almighty is searching for someone who will fulfill their purpose for existence and glorify and praise His name. He wants to pour out His blessing into their lives.