Praise is the Talk and Worship is the Walk
A message by Anna Goldthorpe
It is my desire to share some things the Lord has taught me about worship. It is my hope that this is used to inspire us to evaluate our worship life. To come into His presence daily and to not ever become familiar with the God we serve.
John 4:21-24
Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall you worship the Father. “You worship that which you do not know; we worship that which we know, for salvation is from the Jews.” “But an hour is coming and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
What does Jesus mean when he says worship the Father in spirit and in truth?
In Jesus’ time everyone had a distinct place they would go to worship, almost exactly like it is today. We all have our ‘church’ or ‘place of worship.’ The Jews go to their synagogues, the Muslims to their mosques, Christians to their churches/temples etc… We have a place to go and worship God. Jesus was simply saying to this woman that it’s not about the place you go to worship it’s about what you know you are worshiping. Jesus was saying that true worshipers don’t follow a set of man-made rules or buildings but know that they can worship at any time, any place.
Worship isn’t about a set of songs or waiving a banner or even playing an instrument; worship is more than that. It’s a heart condition, a lifestyle. Praise isn’t “fast” song and worship isn’t “slow” song! A lot of worship leaders have explained worship in this way, thus losing all the power and relationship that its’ actually supposed to bring. Worship is a lifestyle, lived through giving one’s self over completely to God. “True” worship comes out of a heart that is completely devoted and surrendered to Christ.
I once asked God, “What is the true meaning of praise and worship?” I believe it can be different for everyone but this is what He said to me. “Praise is the talk, and worship is the walk.” Let me set a foundation here.
• Praise = “to celebrate and boast”
Psalm 145:2 says, “Every day I will bless Thee, and I will praise thy name forever and ever.” This scripture is talking about blessing the Lord for his great and awesome deeds.
• Praise = “to commend”
Psalm 145:3 goes on to say “Great is the Lord and highly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable.”
• Praise = is inherited or passed down
Israel’s history shows that the people would share God’s wondrous works with their children; this created a trait of transmitting Christian faith to each generation. Simply put, praise is telling of what God has done, celebrating it, and lifting Him up for all He’s done and where He’s brought us from.
So, why praise at church with music and dancing? Well, for one major reason; it still transfers a spirit of faith from one generation to the next! Thus, bringing celebration and excitement about what God can do in the future, specially seeing what He’s done in the past.
Hebrews 2:12 says, "I will proclaim they name to my brethren, in the midst of the congregation I will sing they praise." The word praise in this verse means "to sing a hymn" in order to make known to the congregation of Israel the purpose and plan that the Heavenly Father has in store for the congregation.
From time to time I hear people say, “Even though I have never heard him/or her say I love you, I know they do by their actions towards me.” This always saddens me because I know that it is a basic human need for others to love them and we long to hear the ones we love tell us they love us. It’s the same with God, He longs to hear us say to Him that we love Him and then show Him we do by our actions. Praise is exactly that, it’s verbal. Our children long for our praise when they do something well, as parents we love to give it to them because we know how important it is for them to hear it from us. Praise is verbally telling God how amazing He is and marveling at His wonders.
We have seen that praise is the response of the righteous for what God has done, but worship is the response of the righteous unto God for who He is, the admiration of His person.
Worship is the walk....
Worship is actually walking out the praise that you have given to God. You cannot have one without the other. If you only have have one it will be incomplete. Praise and worship when partnered together bring your words in line with your actions and enables you to fullfill Philippians 1:21 which states, "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."
Worship means to prostrate oneself in homage to royalty, bow down, crouch, fall down, humbly beseech, reverance. Worship involves an action rather then words. There are countless verses in the bible that talk about how worship involves bowing before the Lord kneeling before our Maker.
• Psalm 22:27 says, "All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall bow down and worship before you."
• Psalm 95:6 says, "O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker[in reverent praise and supplication]
• After seeing the Lord pass before him before writing the 10 commandments on the tablets, Moses bows to the ground in worship of the Lord Exodus 34:8, "and Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship."
• After the spirit of the Lord made know his plan to Jehosophat, He bowed down. 2 Chronicles 20:18, "and Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the Lord, worshiping the Lord."
When was the last time you fell to the ground bowing in the Lord's presence? Worship is action rather then word, it's a heart response to the presence of God. When the spirit of the Lord draws near we should have no other response but to bow before Him in His presence, thus saying to the Lord we give you reverence, we humble ourselves before you.
When we are truely worshiping the Lord, we are laying down all our desires, all our needs and all our wants and only focusing on Him and what He wants. This brings the true character of Christ into our lives. When we present ourselves as a living sacrifice walking in line with his will and giving up our own, this is our spiritual act of worship. Worship becomes our walk, Praise becomes our talk.
