What is worship? Is it the act of sliding into church right on time? Hearing the songs, singing the parts you know and lifting your hands so you appear to be as spiritual as the person standing next to you? I would say that is a resounding NO! Worship is so much more than that. It is one of the few things that we can offer to God that He doesn’t already have. We can offer up to Him a gift of love and thankfulness through worship. It is not forced by God so we should offer it up to Him with a willing heart. We so many times view it as a song service at church, but if we take the time to look deeper it is so much more. Worship is showing the state of our heart.  If we are hurting and broken in our spirit we can lift up our hands and sing out to God just as King David did. Saying, “God, I am a hurting person right now and I don’t understand Your plan for this situation, but I am going to worship You anyway, trusting that You are in control, and that You love me as Your child.” There are also those times when we are over joyed at God’s hand working in our lives, because of the victories He has claimed in the battles of our lives. When we see Him working in our lives we can’t help but be excited and the way we express that is worship. It’s a way of lifting up our hearts to God and saying, “Lord, I don’t have anything that is worthy to give, but here is my gift of love to You and I pray that it pleases You.” That is the greatest gift that God could want, our love and service given to Him freely not begrudgingly. When we truly understand worship in this way it puts everything in perspective. We get out of the realm of doing it because that is what we have always done and get into the realm of, I’m doing it because there is no greater honor than to worship the Creator of the universe, and He gave me the freedom to do so. We have entered into difficult times in this world, but closer to home, our country. A country that once had a righteous fear and honor for God is now trying to strip His very existence from our minds. If our faith is to survive these times of persecution and moral failure we have to once again come back to the true meaning of worship. I challenge you to take these words to heart and ask God to make the meaning of worship come alive to you in a very personal way that only you and He can experience. John 4:23 “But the time is coming and is already here when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for anyone who will worship Him that way.” (NLT)