The man who wants to truly worship God, who wants to find and know and possess and enjoy God, must be in harmony with Him, must have the capacity for receiving Him. Because God is Spirit, we must worship in spirit. A. Murray
If God is not bound by space or time, why do we limit our worship of Him to certain places and times? It is too easy to develop a faith routine that becomes rote and compartmentalized. And yet, it seems that we love compartments. I could walk for hours around The Container Store drooling over the many shapes and sizes of boxes, bins, tubs, filing cabinets and crates. It's an obsession that grows the more it is fed. Even if you are not particularly organized, you cannot deny a certain lure from colorful, print covered boxes, boxes in which you can toss photos from a much cherished vacation or expense receipts until it is time to pull them out for the tax man to sort through.
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| Michaela Wightman, Uganda |
If God is not bound by space or time, why do we limit our worship of Him to certain places and times? It is too easy to develop a faith routine that becomes rote and compartmentalized. And yet, it seems that we love compartments. I could walk for hours around The Container Store drooling over the many shapes and sizes of boxes, bins, tubs, filing cabinets and crates. It's an obsession that grows the more it is fed. Even if you are not particularly organized, you cannot deny a certain lure from colorful, print covered boxes, boxes in which you can toss photos from a much cherished vacation or expense receipts until it is time to pull them out for the tax man to sort through.
Not only do we like to compartmentalize our stuff, we also like to compartmentalize our lives. We have our professional lives and our personal lives. This boundary can be good. Knowing how to focus our attention where and when it is needed gives us an edge in our work and helps us to live intentionally in our family and friend relationships. However, it is possible that we have become too skilled at dividing and conquering. It is possible that we find it too easy to fit God into a neat little faith box.
A man who seeks to pray earnestly in the church or in the closet spends the greater part of the week or the day in a spirit entirely at odds with that in which he prayed. His worship was the work of a fixed place or hour, not of his whole being. A Murray
Andrew Murray highlights the fact that when we only worship God in our places of worship, we spend the rest of our time missing out on the the joy of continual guidance, peace and heavenly conversation. Sometimes, more than just missing out on fellowship, we are actually at odds with the spirit in which we prayed.
Teach us Lord what it means to worship you in spirit and in truth! We long to know your presence every minute of the day and to hear your voice guiding us as we navigate the meaningful and the mundane.
But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.
John 4:23-24
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