Worship: To Kiss toward God!

James Packer states, “To worship God is to recognize his worth or worthiness; to look God-ward, and to acknowledge in all appropriate ways the value of what we see.” (Your Father Loves You, Harold Shaw Publishers, July 1986, P. 15.) The Bible calls this activity "glorifying God" or "giving glory to God," and views it as the ultimate end, and from one point of view, the whole duty of man (Ps. 29:2; 96:6; 1 Cor. 10:31).

Biblical Word for Worship is “proskuneo” and its definition is “to kiss the hand to (towards) one, in token of reverence.” It is the kneeling down and bowing one’s head down in total surrender to the Almighty God.

Scripture views worshiping God as a six fold activity:
1. Praising God for all that he is and all his achievements;
2. Thanking God for his gifts and his goodness to us;
3. Offering God our gifts, our service, and ourselves;
4. Communing with God to meet our own and others' needs;
5. Learning of him from his word, read and preached, and obeying his voice;
6. Telling others of his worth, both by public confession and testimony to what he has done for us.

This then is worship in its largest sense: petition as well as praise, preaching as well as prayer, hearing as well as speaking, actions as well as words, obeying as well as offering, loving people as well as loving God. The Primary “WHAT” of worship is focusing one’s attention on God directly -- Worship is kissing God’s direction.

The previous was an excerpt from my sermon yesterday. I thought it a good thing to meditate on this day after. May we never forget how God inhabits the praises of His people and thus, our dedication to worship and kissing toward God is a daily exercise for the good of my (and your) Christ-centered life.

You know I love ya - a fellow worshiper.