Worship for God is not something we do; it is something we are. Because worship is not confined to a place, in a time, and in a ritual. We worship God with the attitude of our lives that is consummated or focused into times of public or private worship. So worship is something we are; it is the embodiment of our life of faith. Worship is a response to who God is and what He has done for us in Christ. There’s a respect and awe because He is God. Worship is primarily God-focused, not man-focused. Worship involves the whole person. By that i mean, it is both form and attitude. It is both public and private. It is both scheduled and extemporaneous (do you catch the balance between the dynamism of the individual believer and the structuredness of a local fellowship?). True worship is an outgrowth of a personal relationship that’s always been the Biblical key. Form without faith is void, but faith without form is lacking

In John chapter 4, we find Jesus meeting the woman at the well. It’s not a planned theological discussion, but in her response to Jesus, to try to skirt Him off those penetrating questions He was asking, she went back to different forms of worship, between the Samaritans and the Jews. And Jesus cut to the heart of worship when He said, “it’s not this mountain or that mountain; it’s not Samaria or Judea that’s central. It’s worshiping God in spirit and truth”. Now, that cuts away a lot of man-made rituals, like we see in Isaiah 29:13 that so clogs the system of man’s worship. Instead of being a faith animal, it becomes a ritual animal. And the ritual quite often is human ritual, not God-given. So i think we need to realize that worship is focused in and through the person of Christ to the person of God. An open heart goes a long way in justifying and establishing form. The form is wonderful, but the form is not crucial, faith is crucial. Attitude is crucial but a proper attitude will issue in formalized religion, in daily worship, and in lifestyle.