What is worship?

JOESEL “JOEY” CHAPARRO

What is worship?

The Hebrew word for worship is SHACHAH, which means "to depress, i.e. prostrate (in homage to royalty or God): bow (self) down, crouch, fall down (flat), humbly beseech, do (make) obeisance, do reverence, make to stoop, worship"(Scott,2000). The word worship is found over 500 times in the bible, 385 times in the old testament and 118 times in the new testament (Knowing-Jesus.com, 2021). Throughout our biblical history, we find that Abraham, Moses, Jacob, Joseph, Daniel, David, Solomon, etc., all revered God and worshipped His glorious name. We can truthfully state that our worship to God is symbolic in many ways. For example, when Abraham took his son to the mountain, he told his servants that he is going to worship with his son in the mountains. Another example David danced and worshipped when the Ark of the Covenant was brought back to the capital. Both instances are different.

As a praise and worship leader, we worship through our musical gifts or vocal gifts. Prior to standing on the Altar every Sunday at church, we must ensure our purity and homage to God by standing in agreement together and praying that the Holy Spirit manifests itself within us so that our worship can help God’s people be ready to receive His word. Worship has a way of manifesting itself in our atmosphere. As a former combat soldier, I prayed to God every time I left outside the wire. Praying and singing praises was my way of worshipping God while overseas. Throughout the Bible, we see prophets and kings praying before a battle and God’s people worshipping before and after a battle is won. As a Knight, we must incorporate this method in our daily lives while having an intimate relationship with Christ, so that our worship is heard. Jesus was seen worshipping God by praying to Him.

To worship allows us to release our problems to God, change our mindsets from negative to positive while revering God’s almighty name. Once the Holy Spirit enters our body, our spirit rejoices by worshipping and transcending our thoughts to His will and His righteous ways. To achieve Knighthood, we must live a life of worship and be willing to lay our lives down for Christ like He did for us. Be humble, be wise, be steadfast while loving unconditionally like Christ loves us. From the way we live, to the way our attitudes reflect our worship, will reap our rewards in heaven.