Spiritual Disciplines for Soul: Worship

William Gaultiere, Ph.D. © 2005

Though God himself, Jesus worshiped the Father.  He didn’t worship himself.  Most of the time he withdrew from the spotlight and focused people’s attention on the Father and the Spirit.  And when he did draw attention to himself it was to his cross.  Repeatedly, he called himself “the Son of Man,” not “the Son of God.” (Though, of course, he was the Son of God and he acknowledged and demonstrated this.)  Jesus’ posture of seeking to glorify the Father and not himself wasn’t just his posture for thirty-three years on earth.  Jesus revealed to us the humble way of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Spirit adoring and honoring one another above their own selves.

Jesus entered human flesh to show us how to live a life of loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength: a lifestyle of worship.  Like us, he was sinned against by people, tempted by worldly distractions, stressed by challenges, and opposed by demons and yet in the midst of all this he learned to devote himself solely to pleasing his Father and giving him glory.  Because he faced all of our struggles and worshiped God completely he is the perfect high priest for us; He understands our weaknesses and leads us into the heavens to bow at the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:14-16). 

Jesus shows us that the way to live a life of worshiping our glorious God is to practice worship as a regular spiritual discipline.  Repeatedly, we need to do particular activities that will engage our hearts to appreciate and respond to God’s goodness.  The gospels provide us with many different examples of Jesus implementing spiritual disciplines of worship in order to help him make his life a living sacrifice of worship to the Father:

  - He regularly went to the temple to worship with other people (Luke 2:46, 19:45, 20:21, 21:37)

  - He celebrated religious feasts with his disciples and others (John 5:1, 7:1, 12:12)

  - He sang hymns with his disciples (Matthew 26:30)

  - He praised the Father verbally in public (Matthew 11:25)

  - He worshiped God in silence and solitude early in the morning (Mark 1:35, 3:13, 6:31, 46)

  - He worshiped God with fasting (Matthew 4:1-11)

  - He prayed the Psalms of his ancestor David (Matthew 27:46, Luke 23:46)

  - He taught his disciples to begin their prayers as he did by adoring the Father: “Our Father, who art in Heaven,

    hallowed by thy name” (Matthew 6:9) 

  - He focused on his Father’s goodness and responded by saying and doing whatever he saw the Father doing

    (John 6:38, 12:50)

  - He lived with continual consciousness and empowerment of the Holy Spirit (Luke 10:21, John 3:34)

  - He instituted the sacrament of communion (Matthew 26:26-28)

  - He willingly – joyfully! – sacrificed his life to God on the cross (John 10:17-19, Hebrews 12:2)

If our Lord himself relied on various practices of worship to help him offer his body as a “living sacrifice” of worship to God then how much more must we do so! (Romans 12:2).