2026 Sacred Whispers Blog

“Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.”

Psalm 95:6

THE DISCIPLINE OF WORSHIP

Today, I invite you to join me on a journey into the heart of worship! This invitation is a summons to draw near, to recognize the majesty of God, and to allow the fullness of God’s presence to transform us from the inside out.

First, we must understand what it means to worship. Worship is the expression of reverence and adoration for God. It is an act of embracing God’s presence and responding to His divine, unconditional love with awe, gratitude, and full surrender. It is also the very posture of our lives, the way we turn our hearts, minds, and souls toward God.

Psalm 95:6 states, “Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.” We often think of worship as only singing songs, which is a powerful expression of worship; however, true worship involves so much more. Romans 12:1 instructs us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is our spiritual worship, according to the ESV. The NIV translation states the last phrase this way: “This is your true and proper worship.” The NLT says it as: “This is truly the way to worship Him.”

Worship involves our awareness of that personal “spring of living water” that God has planted within us. John 7:38 says, “Whoever believes in Me, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” Worship is adoration, declaring with every breath that God is worthy of our praise!

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO EMBRACE WORSHIP?

To embrace is to willingly accept and support enthusiastically, to hold closely as a sign of affection. When we embrace worship, we focus not on ourselves, but on God! Worship centers us, reminding us who is in control. Worship humbles us because we recognize our dependence on God’s grace. Worship heals us because, in God’s presence, broken hearts are mended, and we can experience peace and comfort. AND worship unites us, binding us together as the family of God.

It is to be our way of life, Saints! How we live every moment, expressing gratitude for every good and perfect gift, and also entrusting God with our right-now needs and our future. God calls us to worship!

Jesus said to the thirsty Samaritan woman at the well in John 4:23-24: “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

To worship God “in spirit and truth” means to worship Him with a sincere heart, motivated by love and gratitude, and based on a true understanding and knowledge of who He is and what He has done through Jesus Christ. Yet, if we’re truly honest with ourselves, sometimes it may be difficult to embrace worship fully. The cares and busyness of life, the distractions of technology, social media, health concerns, the pain of grief, and just day-to-day circumstances can cause us to feel distant, unworthy, or even spiritually dry.

I stated earlier that the definition of worship is the expression of reverence and adoration for God; yet, Saints, we must know personally the God we’re worshipping. Despite whatever we may be going through in this life, we must know that the God we serve will meet us right where we are!

Paul and Silas were in jail, with their backs bleeding and their feet in chains, but they sang hymns to God! Their worship was a testimony of faith in suffering, and it led to a miraculous deliverance (Acts 16:25). Mary of Bethany poured expensive perfume on Jesus’ feet and wiped them with her hair (John 12:3). Her worship was extravagant and personal, flowing from love and gratitude. These biblical examples demonstrate how worship can erupt from the heart of those who have an intimate knowledge and relationship with God.

WORSHIP AMONG THE ASHES

In 1945, at the end of World War II, a group of Christians gathered secretly in a bombed-out cellar beneath the ruins of Cologne Cathedral. The city around them lay in ashes, buildings crumbled, families shattered, streets empty except for smoke and debris. Many had lost everything: homes, loved ones, futures they had once imagined. Yet in the midst of that devastation, with dust falling from the ceiling and the faint sound of distant explosions, a survivor lit a single candle and began to sing a hymn of worship.

One by one, others joined in, broken voices, trembling hands, tear-filled eyes. They worshipped with rubble at their feet and sorrow in their bones. And in that underground silence, surrounded by the ruins of their world, their worship rose like incense, fragile, honest, and defiant. They were not worshipping because life was beautiful; they were worshipping because God was still present in the wreckage. Scrawled later on a cellar wall where many of them gathered was a simple confession of faith, written by an anonymous believer who had lost everything:

“I believe in the sun, even when it is not shining.

I believe in love, even when I do not feel it.

I believe in God, even when He is silent.”

What kind of heart can worship while standing in the ruins of its own life? Only a heart anchored in the steadfastness of God, a heart that has learned that worship is not the denial of sorrow but the declaration of hope. Their story teaches us this truth: we do not worship because circumstances are good; we worship because God is good.

When we know and have experienced God in a way that shakes us to our very core, we can worship Him with every breath He’s placed within us. It was in the late 1980s that I had such an experience. It was a time when I allowed the cares of this world, the pain of disappointment, and a broken heart to cause me to lose all hope and want to end my life…BUT GOD!

It was a Friday afternoon around 1 p.m., sitting in my office at work in downtown Charleston, SC, with a made-up mind that I was going home to end my life. I was done! However, God saw fit to send a young lady named Donna to my office, who told me she had been praying and God told her to come and tell me not to do it, that He loves me. I just burst into tears, knowing that only God and I knew what I had planned. I am, to this day, grateful for Donna and her obedience to the voice of God. It was that experience that confirmed God’s love for me and is why I can worship God without reservation.

A.W. Tozer once wrote: “Worship is the missing jewel of the modern church. It is not something we attend; it is something we become.”  Worship shapes us, steadies us, restores us, and reveals to us that we belong to God.

WHY EVERY BELIEVER HAS A REASON TO WORSHIP

You may say, “Well, I have not had an experience with God like that, so I don’t have a reason to embrace worship.” Well, let me give you one! If you’re reading this and you’re born again by the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, you have every reason to embrace worship!

God so loved each of us that He stepped out of eternity into time as the only begotten Son of God, Jesus, so that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have eternal life. God didn’t send Jesus into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

Because of the disobedience of one man, Adam, sin and death came into the world, and many were made sinners (Romans 5:19). This created a penalty of debt for sin and separated us from God. Oh, but God, who is rich in mercy, already had a redemptive plan to redeem mankind back to Himself! So, by the obedience of one Man, the God-Man, Jesus Christ, many are made righteous, giving us right standing with God and our sins forgiven.

Not because of anything we have done to earn it, but because of the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. That’s where He shed His precious blood to pay in full the sin debt we owed and could not pay. For it is by grace, God’s unmerited favor, that we have been saved, not by works, so no one can boast, but through faith and belief in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

There is no greater experience than being born again by the transforming power of the Holy Spirit and having our sin debt paid in full! If that does not cause you to embrace worship, check your thermostat! We are still here with the blood running warm in our veins, and we didn’t die in our sins. That accident didn’t take us out. Our promiscuity didn’t end with us getting AIDS and dying. That abuse we suffered didn’t end in our death. That suicide attempt didn’t result in our no longer being here.

How many times have we come close to death, yet God, who is rich in mercy, spared us, and we are still here! Today, you were invited to join me on a journey into the heart of worship. James 4:8 gives us a conditional promise that if we draw near to God, that’s the condition; He will draw near to us, that’s the promise! So draw near to God in love and adoration so He can draw near to you!

Saints, we have a reason to embrace worship; there is no excuse! Let us embrace worship by allowing the fullness of God’s presence to cause us to respond in awe, gratitude, and full surrender. Let us become people marked by adoration and joy, glorifying God in all we say and do!

PRAYER

Father God, in the name of Jesus, thank You for the ability to worship You with our whole hearts. Thank You for Your love, Your grace, and Your mercy. May You take pleasure in our worship this day, and may we remember it’s a privilege You have provided to us through the shed blood of Jesus Christ our Lord. Saturate us with Your presence as we come before You in adoration and awe, knowing that You are a good, good Father, keeping everything we commit unto You. Let the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in Your sight because You are our strength and our redeemer. Amen.