Verse
[Jesus said,] “For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”
Thought
Must! That is a hard word when spoken by Jesus! So we must pay attention. Our actions must conform to his words. Must! Yet this must is not one we can do on our own. The requirement to worship God acceptably cannot take place because of our effort — because we do it right, say the right words, do it in the right place or follow the right procedures. God is Spirit. We cannot worship God without the Holy Spirit! Other places we are told that true worship is worship in the Spirit (Phil. 3:3; Eph. 5:17-21 — notice “pray in the Spirit” Eph. 6:17; Jude 20). More than engaging our minds and our bodies, we need the presence of the Holy Spirit to help us worship acceptably. This is true for two reasons.
The first is that the Holy Spirit gives us access to the Father (Eph. 2:18), the Spirit intercedes for us (Rom. 8:26-27), and the Spirit enables us to cry Abba Father to God spirit with Spirit to God (Rom. 8:14-17; Gal. 4:6). The second reason is that the Spirit is at work conforming us to be like Jesus (2 Cor. 3:18), empowering us to put to death the misdeeds of the body (Rom. 8:9-13), and to display the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23). This is why being born of “water and the Spirit” is so important (John 3:3-7; Titus 3:3-7). Without the Spirit, true worship will not happen. We MUST have the Spirit to worship in spirit and truth!
Prayer
Father, thank you for sending Jesus to reveal your truth and for sending the Spirit to make that truth come alive in me. May my life be a living and holy praise to you! In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
Devotional provided by Heartlight®
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