[Songs in the Night - August 15]
The true worshipers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. John 4:23
WORSHIP in Spirit and in truth does not apply
simply to prayer, praise, supplication, and thanksgiving.
It goes deeper than all these and takes hold upon
the affections, upon the heart, and hence signifies not
an "act of worship" but rather a life of worship—a
life in which, through the begetting of the Spirit and
the knowledge of the divine plan, the individual becomes
so at one with God and so in unison with
the law of God and all the features of the plan of
God that it is, in the words of our Lord, his meat
and his drink to do the Father's will.
This is worship
in Spirit and in truth.
It will find its expression
in bended knee and in orderly and reverential
demeanor in approach to God in personal prayer, in
family prayer and in company with the household of
faith, and it will find its expression also in all the acts
and words of life.
The captivated heart will seek to
bring every talent of the body into complete subjection
to the will of God and of Christ.
The whole of this
is the worship which God seeketh; and, surely, only
those who are thus captivated to the Lord in heart,
and who serve him in Spirit and in truth and endeavor
to have his will done in their hearts, words, and conduct
are in the full sense the true worshipers whom
the Lord seeketh; the "little flock," the faithful "royal
priesthood." Z'96-287 R2071:6 (Hymn 202)