Introduction
There is such great value in worshiping God that the answers may very well be endless. Even the mere contemplation of the question causes our hearts to well up with intense love and appreciation. With every breath we take, a tear of appreciation could fall. How does one qualify or quantify the worship of not only the giver of love, but the source of love? “God is love.” (1 John 4:8)
Nevertheless, we will attempt to provide answers and we ask that you keep in mind that worship is better understood by the experience of it, rather than the explanation of it. And when we experience what true worship is, we are led internally to the answer as to ‘Why.’
Worship is the highest privilege and the first duty of all created intelligences. Worship is the conscious and joyous act of recognizing and acknowledging the truth and fact of our intimate and personal relationship with God. As we progress in our knowledge of God, we begin to attain to the highest experiential delight and the most exquisite pleasure known to created beings.
Our worship of God renews the mind, inspires the soul, and enables us bravely to face our problems. It obliterates debilitating fear and equips us with the assurance that we can dare to ‘be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect’ (Matthew 5:48) because it makes us increasingly like the One who is worshiped.
Worship is a transforming experience whereby man can gradually approach and ultimately attain the presence of God. It relieves tension, removes conflicts, and mightily augments the total resources of the personality. It is an interchange of strength for weakness, courage for fear, and the will of God for the mind of self.
Worship is the act of a part identifying itself with the Whole; the finite with the Infinite; the son with the Father. It is the act of the son's personal communion with the divine Father, the assumption of refreshing, creative, fraternal, and romantic attitudes by the God-knowing soul.
We do not worship God because of anything we may derive from such veneration; we render such devotion and engage in such worship as a natural and spontaneous reaction to the recognition of the Father's matchless personality and his lovable nature and adorable attributes.
Yet the worship of God does eventuate in tangible benefits to man. Worship of God is the only avenue of personality survival after death. No other endeavor of man can satisfy his unquenchable yearning for eternity. Without God, all of man’s personal achievements return to dust.
“Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing.”
– Psalms 146:3-4
We would even venture to say that man’s quest to explore the universe and outer space is an unconscious effort to satisfy his heavenly longings – to answer his internal call to be with his Father in the heavens. Yet no scientific discovery, no mathematical calculation, no mechanical creation can take man to this destiny. Only worship of the ineffable Father can.
Finally, on an earthly level, worship of God eventuates in the emergence of the spiritual brotherhood of man. As the brotherhood grows, man’s quest for peace on earth becomes more and more attainable as he prepares himself for the real life with the Father in heaven.
