How is worship different from praise?

Many are familiar with the song, "Heart of Worship". The chorus rightly echoes "I'm coming back to the heart of worship, and it's all about You, all about You"

One of the original meaning of worship in Hebrew is to kiss like a dog licking the master's arm. It represents the inner passion to adore and to surrender ourselves totally to the Master - not out of compulsion but gratitude. What is the difference between praise and worship?

We praise God for what He has done, and worship Him for who He is. Praise is a response to His goodness whereas worship is a response to His glory. Even when things do not happen, we can still praise God because of what He has done and going to do! Worship however is an intimate affair. It must contain the element of surrender. The first notion of worship was revealed by Abraham when he wanted to go to the mountain to sacrifice his son Isaac as his act of worship. (This is by no means a child sacrifice but he believed that God could raise his son up again.)

Praise is a privilege of all creation. Everyone can praise God simply because He is worthy to be praised. The bible says, "Let everything that has breath praise the LORD."

Worship however is a privilege of the children of God, because only the children of God can worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

Praise is visible - clapping, singing, dancing, shouting. It can be easily detected but not worship, because it is a heart issue. Singing with tears or crying out aloud does not necessary mean that someone is worshipping the Lord. That is why Jesus said the Father is seeking true worshipers - true means genuine, not counterfeit.

The Father is looking for people who worships from a posture of surrender, love and deep intimacy.

Don't stop at just praising God, but draw near to worship Him.

True worship - Beyond the music

One of the ways to understand a concept in bible is to study its first occurence in the bible. Hence, to understand worship it is crucial for us to study when it was first mentioned in scripture and in what context.

If you do a little search on the online bible , you will find the first mention of the word 'worship' - Gen 22:5

"He said to his servants, 'Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.'"

That is where man first encountered the concept of worship.

Days ago, Abraham had a heart-wrenching word of the Lord to sacrifice his son to God on Mount Moriah. Then at the foot of the mount he said to his servant that

1) we will worship
2) 'we' will come back

'We' here refers to Abraham and his son, Isaac. Herein lies two elements of worship :

1) Sacrifice
2) Faith

We ascend to the heavenlies in our worship through sacrifice, and we descend to the earth to establish His kingdom through faith.

When we worship the Lord, we lay down all we have, all we are and all we want at the altar of sacrifice. Yet we find life. It is an irony that we are called to be living sacrifice.

What is sacrificed? Our selfish desires. What is living? Our relationship with Christ. It is within this truth, that Paul said, "To die is gain, and to live is Christ"

After we worshipped the Lord, we respond to our challenges with faith. Abraham said "we" will come back, believing that God will indeed provide the physical sacrifice and fulfill His promise. How is faith produced?

When we worship God, we worship Him as He is not as we want Him to be. Contrary to most songs, God is not magnified by us. He is already the Almighty One. What is magnified is our perception of God, and that produces faith because faith is seeing God as He is.

Worship then is not singing along in a church celebration service, or hummming along the latest CD from Hillsongs. True worship stems from a heart of sacrifice that releases faith upon an encounter with the living God.