11. Worship touches the inner part of who you are

Intimate.

When you say the word intimacy, what comes to mind? Are you intimate with God in your worship?

Yesterday we saw that worship by Jesus’ own description, requires the spirit, which is not necessarily intellectual, and truth, which is at its core cerebral. I summarized such worship as being of a sincere heart. You must worship God honestly.

We must declare His worthiness and physically and spiritually bow in submission to Him out of trust. It is reasonable, logical but also heart felt with our mind and spirit.

But worship must get to the inner you, deep down in your soul as well as your spirit and mind. That is why so many people feel so protective of their style of worship and not just musical style, but the worship that speaks to the deepest part of you.

Worship is to be vulnerable, emotional, personal, practical. Intimacy is what God calls us to when we are to love God with our heart, soul, mind and strength.

True worship is intimacy reaching the inner you and you reaching the inner part of God. It is what led David to dance and Isaiah to proclaim he was undone and ruined. It caused Adam to seek God unaware of his nakedness before the fall and to shrink away in fear after the fall, knowing that with intimacy with God would not only cause him to be exposed physically but in shame for his sinful acts. Worship awakened Christ early in the morning to meet His Father in personal prayer.

Worship leads God to be called Jealous but in a holy sense of not wanting us to seek any other idols or gods or objects of worship.

It is on those inward parts that God wants to write His laws and words upon us (Jer. 31:33). It is the hidden person of the heart that God values (1 Peter 3:4). Intimate worship of God renews us day by day (2 Cor.4:16). That inner intimacy is what God seeks and what He praises (Rom. 2:29). He will strengthen our inner person when we come to Him to worship Him (Eph.3:16).

Intimacy is explicitly shown by Jesus when He called on God as Abba Father (Mark 14:36), and the Bible commands us to do likewise (Rom.8:15-16, Gal. 4:6). We are called to be the bride of Christ, recalling the purest of first love, when intimacy was fresh and new.

Intimate worship does not have to be emotional every time but it should contain some emotion, not only tears but joy, satisfaction, song, in purity, in solemnity, in generosity, in giving, in prayer, eyes closed or eyes lifted. When our hearts are exposed to God, true worship begins (1 Cor.14:25).

When we come to the Lord’s Table for Holy Communion, we truly worship intimately before God, examining our hearts for purity and impurities, to test whether we can partake worthily (1 Cor. 11:28-29).

"Search me, God, and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me." Psalm 139:23-24a