What is Personal Worship?
by James Kyte
Personal Worship Defined
Personal worship is the privilege and opportunity to humbly and reverently ascribe worth to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Joseph Carroll stated, “What is worship? The term comes to us in our modern speech from the Angleo-Saxon “weorth-scripe,” which later developed into “worship,” meaning to attribute worth to an object. Worship is the “worthship” of the one you worship. To worship Jesus Christ is to attribute worth to him.”[1]
Revelation 4:11 (KJV) exhorts us, “Thou art worth, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”
Personal worship then could be expressed that it’s the unworthy humbly and reverently attributing worth to our Great God and King. This form of worship can only occur from a complete yielding of my will to the total control of the Holy Spirit.
Andrew Murray noted, “[T]he first and chief mark of the relationship of man with God, the secret of his blessedness, is the humility and nothingness which leaves God free to be all.”[2]
The key to personal devotion is lifting up God and lowering down myself.
Isaiah 57:15 (KJV) states, “15 For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.”
The Practice of Personal Worship
True personal worship will place God and myself in the right places. It raises and exalts God high on his throne, then I must bow down and humble myself before Him.
When I think about our practice of personal worship, I’m reminded of Moses in Exodus 33. The Bible describes a one-on-one conversation between God and Moses. It was so intimate and so personal, it was stated in verse 11 (KJV), “11 And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle.”
I love this phrase, “…the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend…” This intimacy is the best description of what our worship should represent.
Biblical Examples
We see various practices and examples in the Bible. One example is Adam’s experience of personal worship with God in the garden during the cool of the day. Abraham whom became known as the friend of God. I love to read and study about David as he worshiped God while personally alone tending the sheep. Many of the Psalms, that he would write, displayed personal worship with God.
Another example is that of Paul as he toiled and brought the gospel to the Gentiles, Paul would write to the church of Philippi about his passionate desire to know Christ in the most intimate way. It’s our singing and making melody in our heart towards God. It is our sacrifice of our praise to declare his goodness. Worship is our studying, meditating and memorizing of Scripture. It’s the intimate conversations and communication in prayer. It’s our spreading of the Gospel to those that are lost. Personal worship is serving in our local church in whatever capacity we are needed. It could be just the opportunity for stillness and silence in His presence.
Corporate Worship
Our personal worship does differ from the cooperate worship, but they are connected and congruent. Our corporate worship is the collection of all our personal worship. You cannot have corporate worship apart from personal worship. The focus of our personal worship should be on Christ. When the attention and focus of our worship is right, then the effects will be that together we are truly worshiping the Lord.
It is through each singular worshipper that God can move collectively among his people. The humbling and sobering thought is that my personal devotion can impact whether God moves among His people. This should motivate us to make sure that our personal worship is such that it elevates our corporate worship because we are worshiping the Lord in spirit and truth at home and at church.
I wonder what our corporate worship would be like if every professing Christian’s personal worship was what it should be? One word…REVIVIAL!
Sources:
[1] Joseph S. Carroll, How to Worship Jesus Christ (Chicago: Moody Press, 1984), 36.
[2] Andrew Murray, Humility (New Kensington, PA: Whitaker House, 1982), 13.
Amen! If we would only grasp that worship is valuing God, wow! It’s not complicated. But we make it so difficult sometimes.