Worship with Praise | First Christian Church of Fort Stockton

Psalms 95:6

“Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;” (NIV)

I want to challenge your perception of worship. Worship is a state of mind. Ever since humans began walking the earth, people have knelt in humility, either to their leaders or their Gods. This practice was often an act of contrition so much as it was an act of self-preservation. But true worship is never about contrition or self-preservation. Worship is the act of understanding our relationship with the creator of the universe. When we truly understand the nature of God, worship is the result. We can’t help ourselves. It is not so much a choice, as a result of our understanding. Worship becomes the ultimate expression our love for our creator; an acknowledgement of our gratitude for that perfect relationship, that bridge between God and man, built with the blood of Jesus Christ. In joy we express love to our God, who refused to abandon us to our sins and chose instead to pull us close to Him and bind us to him so that we can never again be separated from Him.

The elements of worship are not, in and of themselves, worship. We can bow our head, though not in prayer. We can sing hymns, without comprehension. We can listen to a message and never take it to heart. We can embrace one another and still not have concern for the other person. And we can attend worship without ever worshipping.

Worship requires three things:

An understanding of our relationship to the Creator of the Universe
An attitude of gratitude for that relationship
An acceptance of that relationship knowing that only God can and will provide it; that he provides it out of love and not dominance.

When we come to that point of acceptance, the joy of that relationship is exhibited in the form of worship; a crying out of our souls; alone or together. Worship is coming before our Lord with humility, understanding, gratitude and acceptance of both our role and His role in a world created for us, by Him, because He loves us beyond all understanding. We kneel before our maker, not out of fear, but out of love and communion. Through worship, we seek the face or our creator and a blending of our spirits with His.