To worship is to pay homage to one.  The Greek word proskyneō means, “to make obeisance, do reverence to” (Vine’s Expository Dictionary).  Strong’s Greek and Hebrew Dictionary says it means, “to kiss, like a dog licking his master’s hand; to fawn or crouch.”  This is what subjects would do when their king or emperor entered their presence.  They bow before them and kiss their hand.  That is the picture of worship.

To worship God is to figuratively bow before Him in reverence.  While men on earth never deserve such treatment, God always does, and He seeks those who are willing to do so.

John 4:23 (ESV)
²³  But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.

God seeks all people to worship Him, but we cannot worship Him any way we choose to do so.  We must worship Him in spirit (with the right attitude), and in truth (according to His Word).  We can do this in two ways.

We can and must worship God with the saints on the first day of the week, the Lord’s day (Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:1-2; Hebrews 10:24-25).  The first-century church engaged in five different acts of worship.  Two of them were done exclusively on the first day of the week in their local assemblies (the Lord’s supper – Acts 20:7 and giving – 1 Corinthians 16:1-2), and the other three were done both on the Lord’s day and other times as well (preaching – Acts 20:7, singing – Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16, and prayer – Acts 4:23-31.

Worshipping on the Lord’s day is not optional.  God, through His inspired Word, demands that we do so.  You must make the time to worship God at that appointed time.  There are other times when the local church, under the guidance of qualified elders, meet during the week, often on Wednesday evenings.  Since we are obligated to obey the elders who watch over our souls (Hebrew 13:17), if they mandate those assemblies, they are obligatory as well.  Remember, however, that acceptable worship must be done with the right spirit.  If you only attend a worship service because you must, and not because you truly want to pay homage to your Maker, giving Him the respect and reverence He deserves, your worship will be in vain.

The second way we must worship God is individually.  We can do this almost anywhere at anytime, but the best place is in the privacy of our homes, where we can spend time with God alone, praising Him for all that He does for us.  This takes time and discipline, as well as desire, but it is well worth the effort.  We have already spoken this week about prayer and Bible study as a daily activity, and when we engage in such, we are worshipping God.  This is something we can do all by ourselves, or we can do it as a family.

It has been said, “a family that prays together, stays together.”  If that is true, what about a family that prays, studies, and sings together?  Families that have a regular time for worshipping God together are making great use of the time God has given them.  While the activities of life send family members in several different directions (sometimes making, even sharing, a nightly meal together seem impossible), a consistent time of worship together, sometime during the week, can be very unifying, and help draw the entire family closer to God.  I cannot think of a better way of redeeming the time, can you?

As you wind down for the night, think about these things.