We need to give the true God true worship

 Posted at Reformation Scotland:

When we worship the true God, it is fundamentally not about what we get out of it, but rather glorifying Him. Yet as we worship Him, we are gradually being conformed more and more to His image. This benefits us as well as being honouring to Him. Meanwhile, our understanding of what God is like cannot but shape the manner in which we worship Him. When we have a true grasp of who He truly is, the consequence for our worship will be that it truly reflects what He is like. The way we worship God should tell a story about the kind of God He really is. These interconnected themes stand out in the following excerpt from Hugh Binning’s discussion of John 4:23–24 (“…true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth…”).

Our worship should correspond to the God we are worshipping

The right manner of worshipping God is so as our worship carries the stamp of His image on it, such that it is like a mirror in which we may behold God’s nature and properties.

What He Himself is, that is what He wants to be acknowledged to be, and I think it would really be true worship if it had engraved on it the name of the true and living God, and if it proclaimed of itself: God is, and He is a rewarder of them that seek Him diligently.

Most part of our service speaks of an unknown God. Its inscription is, “To the unknown God.” There is so little reverence, or love, or fear, or knowledge in it, that it’s as if we did not worship the true God at all, but an idol. I fear that our worship is sometimes such that no one could conclude from it that it had any relation to the true God!

But this is true worship, when it renders back to God His own image and name. In water from a pure and clean fountain, you may see your reflection distinctly, but a troubled or muddy water, he cannot see himself. So, pure worship is worship which receives and reflects the pure image of God, but impure and unclean worship cannot receive it and retain it.

Christians, please consider this, for the Father seeks a certain kind of worshipper —and why? Because in them He finds Himself (so to speak) — His own image and superscription is on them, His mercy is engraved on their faith and confidence, His majesty and power are stamped on their humility and reverence, His goodness is to be read on the soul’s rejoicing, His greatness and justice in the soul’s trembling.

Continue here.