Worship the Lord Your God

Sylvia Gunter, Christian author and founder of The Father's Business

All the earth shall worship thee, and shall sing unto thee; they shall sing to thy name. Selah. Psalm 66:4

I heard the car door slam in the driveway, and I raced to the front door. I was just in time to see my granddaughter's fabulous blue eyes under cupped hands, above an ear-to-ear grin, peering through a window pane of the French doors. I was opening the door from the inside as she was pushing it open from the outside. I reached down to her, and she leaped up toward me as I picked her up. She locked her legs around my waist and her arms around my neck. We hugged each other fervently. I kept saying, "I am so glad you came to see me," while she smothered me with kisses. She did not want to let me go. She kept saying, "I want to stay here with you always." So we sat down on the stairs, with her still entwined around me, and we continued our life-and-death embrace for minutes on end.

That is worship.

Do you feel the passionate heart connection that marks worship? Each day your Abba Father in Heaven awaits that type of connection with you. Worship means to throw kisses toward. Jesus told us that people who "throw kisses to God" are the kind of worshipers God seeks. The Greek word "worship" in John 4:23-24 is proskuneo, to throw a kiss toward someone in token of respect or homage, to adore, to show respect, or to kneel or fall prostrate before in reverence. The ancient manner of greeting between persons of vastly different ranks was that the one who was inferior fell to his knees and touched his forehead to the ground, throwing kisses toward his superior. My prayer for you is that as you awake every morning, your heart would be full of worship for our almighty and loving God. May you press your face up to your Abba with anticipation of connecting with Him in a real and powerful way, locking onto Him, not wanting to let Him go.

Our Journey of Hope uses materials from another of Sylvia Gunter's books, Prayer Portions, by permission of the author in the lay ministry training -- http://www.ourjourneyofhope.com/lay-ministry-training.cfm -- it provides congregants and churches.