“Worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing!” (Revelation 5:12)

A number of words in the Bible are translated “worship.” The one used the most often means “to bow down and do homage.” Another biblical word for worship means “to kiss toward.” Put the two words together, and you will have a good idea of what real worship is. We worship God because He is worthy. In doing so, we bow down and pay homage to Him. That speaks of reverence and respect for God. But we also “kiss toward” Him, which speaks of tenderness and intimacy.  We ought to be learning all we can about worship, because it will be one of the primary activities of heaven. And Jesus made it clear that there is a right and a wrong way to worship. There is true and false worship.   The Pharisees, who considered themselves the worship experts of their day, missed the target by a mile. Jesus said of them, “ ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men’” (Matthew 15:8-9).

Some people are too flippant and casual with God. They seem to think of Him as their celestial Big Buddy and approach Him that way in prayer: “Hey, Lord, how are You doing?” Others recognize God as holy and all powerful and may even tremble before Him, but they don’t realize that God wants to be known in an intimate and personal way.

We are to revere and honor God. But we’re also to embrace Him in closeness. We are to engage our hearts, with no hypocrisy. And that’s where true worship begins.