“God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth,” (John 4:24).
It is the duty of the sons of men in these days of the Gospel to worship God in spirit and in truth. You should worship God in spirit because it is the will and pleasure of God that they should adore him so. And this sure, to all those that know anything about what deity means, this is a sufficient reason.
“The will of God,” as William Ames says, “is the reason of reasons, and not only right, but the rule of our proceedings.” Many writers speaks to this same purpose. As God’s power is unlimited and his wisdom infinite, so his authority is supreme, and his freedom absolute, and he may both do what he will himself, and appoint what he will have us to do, and it is not for such worms as we are, either to resist, or censure him.
Have you considered how you submit yourself to the rule of God in worshipping him as he requires? God has spoken in his word. Are you a willing servant to his will and word?
We may censure earthly potentates, for they are under Law themselves as well as we are, but it is not so with God; he is not under any Law, save the Law of his own most holy and righteous will, in the choice and determination of which we stand bound, by virtue both of that natural and professed allegiance we owe to him, under the harshest appointments and most distasteful occurrences to acquiesce and rest satisfied. He does not need the advice or help of any of his creatures whether angels or men to assist him in the management of his affairs. He made the world without them, redeemed his church without them, and he knows how to govern it without them. And the reason he does this, and not that, and appoints this, and not that, is not any natural necessity, or debility that is in him, for he is all-sufficient, but it is his own pleasure. I may say in this case as our Savior did in Luke 10:21, “Even so O Father, because it seemed good in thy sight;” or as it is in the original Greek, “because it was thy good pleasure.” Now that it is the will and pleasure of God, that we should worship and adore him in spirit, is evident.John Wilson, The Simplicity of New Testament Worship.
Contemplation:
My God, I feel it is heaven to please You, and to be what You would have me be. O that I were holy as You are holy, pure as Christ is pure, perfect as Your Spirit is perfect! These, I feel, are the best commands in Your Book, and shall I break them? must I break them? am I under such a necessity as long as I live here? I long to worship you both in spirit, with the fullness of my heart, and in truth.
Woe, woe is me that I am a sinner, that I grieve this blessed God, who is infinite in goodness and grace! O if He would punish me for my sins, it would not wound my heart so deep to offend Him. But though I sin continually, He continually repeats His kindness to me.
At times I feel I could bear any suffering, but how can I dishonor this glorious God? What shall I do to glorify and worship this best of beings? O that I could consecrate my soul and body to His service, without restraint, for ever! O that I could give myself up to Him, so as never more to attempt to be my own! or have any will or affections that are not perfectly conformed to His will and His love! But, I cannot live and not sin.
O may angels glorify Him incessantly, and, if possible, prostrate themselves lower before the blessed King of heaven! I long to bear a part with them in ceaseless praise; but when I have done all I can to eternity I shall not be able to offer more than a small fraction of the homage that the glorious God deserves. Give me a heart full of divine, heavenly love.
