Beloved: grace, mercy and love from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. I welcome you to a new week in the year and pray you will be strengthened and kept steady all through this period of worldwide crises, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
As we start this new week, let me remind you of the words of Jesus to a Samaritan woman that He once ministered to, which say, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:21-24NIV) Why did the Lord say these things to the woman? He said them to let her realise that true worship of God is not something anybody can tie to any particular location; true worship of God is of the heart.
Up till the time the Lord was speaking to that woman, the worship life of the Jews was tied to the temple in Jerusalem. And that was consistent with the instructions given to them in the laws of Moses and the prayers of Solomon in dedicating the temple of worship that he built in his own day (Deut 12; 1Kings 8). But when the Lord came, He began to show the people that what God was concerned about was not the building or city in which they were worshiping Him; what He was concerned about was the heart with which they worshipped Him. And that explains why He would allow the city of Jerusalem and the temple of worship in it to be sacked by an enemy nation, when the heart of His people were no longer with Him (2Kings 25:1-21).
Unfortunately, many of God’s people today, including their leaders, still need to be taught this same truth over and over again. They need to be taught again and again that true worship of God is primarily of the heart. In other words, it is from our hearts that our worship of God must evolve. Our praying, singing, dancing, giving, preaching and every other thing we do in service to God must rise from our hearts. And until our hearts are fully and truly involved in whatever we are doing for God, we can be sure that it can only be taken by Him as vanity – a waste of everything (Mark 7:6-7).
So, worshipping God is never about any place or structure; rather, it is ever about the heart of those who are worshiping Him. Sadly, for many today, the worship of God is about structures, places or facilities. This is why a lot of kingdom resources is being put into the erection of magnificent structures and acquisition of all kinds of expensive facilities today. While it is true that God’s people, depending on the times they find themselves, may need to have access to some structures or facilities, we must never make them think that they cannot do without such facilities. Facilities and structures, however important they may seem to us, are not God and should never take His place in our lives. Also, facilities and structures are not human beings. So, they cannot worship God. It is the use we put them to, then, that determines whether God sees them as useful or not.
See, true worship is about God and the people who are worshipping Him. Once God is out of the question, then, all we find is idolatry – the worship of things, organisations or people. And once people (their hearts) are out of the equation, then, all we find is noise and no worship at all. So, for us to have true worship, first, we must see God as the centre of it all. Second, we must understand that we are really the ones that He wants and that can worship Him. And as long as our hearts are fully with Him, He is fine with us and our worship, regardless of where we are and what material things we are using to serve Him. But if our hearts are not with Him, then, there is no worship of Him, regardless of what expensive things or structures we are employing in our worship.
Finally, remember that the apostles of old equally show us through their writings that the real temple of God is made up of people and not earthly structures, however magnificent they may be (1Cor 3:16-17&6:19-20; 1Pet 2:4-5). So, at such a time as this, when most people cannot access the places they have tied their worship life to because of the spread of Coronavirus, I want you to know that you can still worship God adequately and appropriately. All you need to remember is that you yourself are the temple of the living God, not those structures or places you used to go, and that your heart can offer Him true worship from wherever you are.
Do have a peaceful week.
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