Worship The Lord

This devotional considers John 2:13-25 and John 4:20-24. Also read 2 Kings 17:24-41 and 1 Corinthians 6:19-20.

When Jesus once cleared out the temple courts of people selling and exchanging money, he was not the only one angry. The people wanted to know what authority he had to mess up the way they were using the temple. Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.’ They replied, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days? But the temple he had spoken of was his body.

Later, there’s another exchange about the temple. It’s with the Samaritan woman at the well who Jesus tells that a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation comes from the Jews.

Now, even though salvation came from the Jews, Jesus made it clear that no one was worshipping God as they ought, that is, neither Jews selling in God’s temple in Jerusalem, nor Samaritans who had a history of worshipping the Lord but while serving their idols in high places. 

What are we to do with this? Who can worship the Lord the way he requires? Because as Gentile Christians (non-Jewish Christians) we are more like the Samaritans who had mixed allegiances, like this woman who had had many husbands.

Two things encourage me from these accounts today. The first is that Jesus knows what is in each person, in each of us. John does mentions this as the reason Jesus would not entrust himself to people. Later, however, with the Samaritan woman, Jesus’ knowing what was in her heart led this woman to evangelize her whole town.

The second thing that encourages me is that Jesus said, a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. So, it is possible worship the way God wants us to.

Today, let us hear that God wants our hearts to be turned to him. That’s the in truth part of worship. Confessing our sins, areas of failing and grief to God is important even though he knows already. When the woman was honest about her husbands, Jesus said to her, What you have just said is quite true.

We also understand that the place of worship is not a building. God seeks out those who use their bodies as houses of prayer and worship. Paul asks, Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?

So, what do we need to confess today about what our worship has been like? And how can we use our hearts, souls, minds and strength to honor the Lord who loves us past our wrongdoing, and is always calling us closer?

Amen.