worshiping God in spirit & truth

I decided to continue to dig into John 4:22-24 so today is John 4:23:

But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.

What does it take to be a true worshiper?

You have to worship in spirit and truth, but what does that require of us?

Truth is pretty clear: Psalm 119:160 says, “The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.” Jesus said “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” Worship must be according to Scripture and must be in Jesus.

Worshiping in spirit seems more mysterious. First, if we are to worship in spirit we need to be alive in spirit, meaning we must be born of Spirit. Though we are born human, our spirit is dead until it is born. This occurs when we believe in Jesus. If we never choose Jesus as Lord, then we will never be able to worship in spirit.

To be honest I don’t really have any concrete idea about how to worship in spirit. When I think about spiritual gifts they seem to happen by the will of God. When I think about learning in our spirit, it happens because the Holy Spirit teaches us. So, worshiping in spirit probably depends on the Holy Spirit working in us and through us.

I know I tend to worship in spirit more and more, but I can’t say that I did anything to make it happen. If there is anything under my control for this it first came from a dependence on God to work in me and to teach me about worship and to ask Him to make me a better worshiper.

The next part I notice from this passage is that the Father is seeking people who worship Him in spirit and truth.

This part sounds kind of like 2 Chronicles 16:9, “The LORD’s eyes keep on roaming throughout the earth, looking for those whose hearts completely belong to him, so that he may strongly support them.”

If the Lord is looking for people whose hearts are completely belonging to Him, then being a true worship would be part of it.

For a while I’ve been thinking about why it is important to worship correctly. I think is seems reasonable to say that being a true worshiper is part of being completely belonging to God. Therefore, being a true worship will allow God to strongly support us.