Written by Pastor Jack Wellman 92
God wants us to worship Him. He doesn't need us, for He couldn't be a self-sufficient God and need anything or anybody, but He wants us. When Adam sinned it was not He who cried, "God, where art Thou?" It was God who cried, "Adam, where art thou?"
- A. W. Tozer
91
Worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness, the nourishment of the mind with His truth, the purifying of the imagination of His beauty, the opening of the heart to His love, the surrender of the will to His purpose.
- William Temple
90
Begin to rejoice in the Lord, and your bones will flourish like an herb, and your cheeks will glow with the bloom of health and freshness. Worry, fear, distrust, care-all are poisonous! Joy is balm and healing, and if you will but rejoice, God will give power.
- A. B. Simpson
89
After learning to love God (worship), learning to love others is the second purpose of your life.
- Rick Warren
88
We're here to be worshippers first and workers only second. We take a convert and immediately make a worker out of him. God never meant it to be so. God meant that a convert should learn to be a worshiper, and after that he can learn to be a worker...The work done by a worshiper will have eternity in it.
- A. W. Tozer
87
To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God.
- William Temple
85
Worship is an inward feeling and outward action that reflects the worth of God.
- John Piper
84
To gather with God's people in united adoration of the Father is as necessary to the Christian life as prayer.
- Martin Luther
83
The foundation of true holiness and true Christian worship is the doctrine of the gospel, what we are to believe. So when Christian doctrine is neglected, forsaken, or corrupted, true holiness and worship will also be neglected, forsaken, and corrupted.
- John Owen
82
To be used of God. Is there anything more encouraging, more fulfilling? Perhaps not, but there is something more basic: to meet with God. To linger in His presence, to shut out the noise of the city and, in quietness, give Him the praise He deserves. Before we engage ourselves in His work, let's meet Him in His Word... in prayer... in worship.
- Chuck Swindoll
81
The highest form of worship is the worship of unselfish Christian service.
- Billy Graham
80
The best, most beautiful, and most perfect way that we have of expressing a sweet concord of mind to each other is by music.
- Jonathan Edwards
79
God must speak to us before we have any liberty to speak to him. He must disclose to us who he is before we can offer him what we are in acceptable worship. The worship of God is always a response to the Word of God. Scripture wonderfully directs and enriches our worship.
- John Stott
78
The true, the genuine worship is when man, through his spirit, attains to friendship and intimacy with God. True and genuine worship is not to come to a certain place; it is not to go through a certain ritual or liturgy; it is not even to bring certain gifts. True worship is when the spirit, the immortal and invisible part of man, speaks to and meets with God, who is immortal and invisible.
- William Barclay
77
We must devote, not only times and places to prayer, but be everywhere in the spirit of devotion; with hearts always set toward heaven, looking up to God in all our actions, and doing everything as His servants; living in the world as in a holy temple of God, and always worshiping Him, though not with our lips, yet with the thankfulness of our hearts, the holiness of our actions and the pious and charitable use of all His gifts.
- William Law
76
An unschooled man who knows how to meditate upon the Lord has learned far more than the man with the highest education who does not know how to meditate.
- Charles Stanley
75
Worship is not a repetitious exercise of rituals and formulas. These create a veil that actually prevents us from enjoying the presence of the Lord. Worship is the heart poured out in gratitude and awe, expressing our appreciation of who He is and what He has done for us by His grace through Jesus Christ.
- Dave Hunt
74
Worship is a believer's response to God's revelation of Himself. It is expressing wonder, awe, and gratitude for the worthiness, the greatness, and the goodness of our Lord. It is the appropriate response to God's person, His provision, His power, His promises, and His plan.
- Nancy Leigh DeMoss
73
I believe that in public worship we should do well to be bound by no human rules, and constrained by no stereotyped order.
- Charles Spurgeon
72
It is God who gives us the spirit of worship (Psalm 133:3), and it is what we know of God that produces this spirit of worship. We might say that worship is simply theology, doctrine, what we think about God, going into top gear! Instead of merely thinking about Him, we tell Him, in prayer and praise and song, how great and glorious we believe Him to be!
- Sinclair B. Ferguson
71
Worship is giving God the best that He has given you. Be careful what you do with the best you have. Whenever you get a blessing from God, give it back to Him as a love gift. Take time to meditate before God and offer the blessing back to Him in a deliberate act of worship. If you hoard a thing for yourself, it will turn into spiritual dry rot, as the manna did when it was hoarded. God will never let you hold a spiritual thing for yourself; it has to be given back to Him that He may make it a blessing to others.
- Oswald Chambers
70
Where God is at the center of things, worship inevitably follows. Where there is no spirit of worship, there God has been dethroned and displaced.
- Sinclair B. Ferguson
66
Forms and rituals do not produce worship, nor does the disuse of forms and rituals. We can use all the right techniques and methods, we can have the best possible liturgy, but we have not worshipped the Lord until Spirit touches spirit.
- Richard J. Foster
65
So many today are worshiping in the mountains, big churches, stone and frame buildings. But Jesus teaches that salvation is not in these stone structures--not in the mountains--not in the hills, but in God.
- William J. Seymour
64
Worship is our innermost being responding with praise for all that God is, through our attitudes, actions, thoughts, and words, based on the truth of God as He has revealed Himself.
- John MacArthur
63
Word and worship belong indissolubly to each other. All worship is an intelligent and loving response to the revelation of God, because it is the adoration of His name. Therefore, acceptable worship is impossible without preaching. For preaching is making known the name of the Lord, and worship is praising the name of the Lord made known.
- John Stott
62
Without the heart it is not worship; it is a stage play; an acting a part without being that person really a hypocrite. We may truly be said to worship God-though we lack perfection; but we cannot be said to worship Him if we lack sincerity.
- Stephen Charnock
61
Saints are described as fearing the name of God; they are reverent worshippers; they stand in awe of the Lord's authority; they are afraid of offending Him; they feel their own nothingness in the sight of the Infinite One.
- Charles Spurgeon
60
Man, so long as he remains free, has no more constant and agonizing anxiety than find as quickly as possible someone to worship.
- Fyodor Dostoevsky
59
If we haven't learned to be worshippers it doesn't really matter how well we do anything else. Worship changes us or it has not been worship. To stand before the Holy One of eternity is to change. Worship begins in holy expectancy, it ends in holy obedience.
- Erwin Lutzer
58
There is, however, equally great incentive to worship and love God in the thought that, for some unfathomable reason, He wants me as His friend, and desires to be my friend, and has given His Son to die for me in order to realize this purpose. not merely that we know God, but that He knows us.
- J.I. Packer
57
It is in the process of being worshipped that God communicates His presence to men.
- C.S. Lewis
56
There is a difference between going to a service "for the worship" and going to a service "to worship the Lord." The distinction appears to be a minor one, but it may imply the difference between the worship of God and the worship of music!
- Sinclair B. Ferguson
55
For the Christian, worship is co-extensive with life. Life is already an expression of worship.
- Ravi Zacharias
54
In worship an increased power steals its way into the heart sanctuary, an increased compassion grows in the soul. To worship is to change.
- Richard J. Foster
53
Strong affections for God, rooted in and shaped by the truth of Scripture - this is the bone and marrow of biblical worship.
- John Piper
52
Worship is not an external activity precipitated by the right environment. To worship in spirit is to draw near to God with an undivided heart. We must come in full agreement without hiding anything or disregarding His will.
- Erwin Lutzer
51
Those who invest more into a relationship with Jesus will have a greater sense of rejoicing in Him.
- Crystal McDowell
50
The weekly worship service can be very effective in evangelism of non-Christians and in edification of Christians if it does not aim at either alone but is Gospel centered and in the vernacular.
- Tim Keller
49
Two sentiments alone suffice for man, were he to live the age of the rocks - love, and the contemplation of the Deity.
- Isaac Watts
48
All Christian power springs from communion with God and from the indwelling of divine grace.
- James H. Aughey
47
The simplest way to define worship is that it is to attribute worth to God's revealed character. The command to "ascribe to the Lord the glory due to His name" in Psalm 29:2 does not mean we add anything to God. It simply means that we acknowledge Him for who He is and in this way glorify or honor Him. This is precisely what is being done in heaven (Revelation 4:11, 5:12).
- William Thrasher
46
I drove away from my mind everything capable of spoiling the sense of the presence of God.... I just make it my business to persevere in His holy presence... My soul has had an habitual, silent, secret conversation with God.
- Brother Lawrence
45
Worship is our response to the overtures of love from the heart of the Father. Its central reality is found 'in spirit and truth.' It is kindled within us only when the Spirit of God touches our human spirit.
- Richard J. Foster
44
Regardless of the reaction of others, one thing is certain: True worship and devotion will make our lives fragrant and will perfume the environment around us. Our homes, our churches, even our places of work will bear the sweet scent of our devotion. Most important, the Lord Jesus will be pleased. And ultimately that is all that really matters.
- Nancy Leigh DeMoss
43
I wonder if there was ever a time when true spiritual worship was at a lower ebb. To great sections of the church, the art of worship has been lost entirely, and in its place has come that strange and foreign thing called the "program." This word has been borrowed from the stage and applied with sad wisdom to the public service which now passes for worship among us.
- A. W. Tozer
