Worshipping the Father

‘Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks.’ John 4.23
 
Let’s look at just six words from this statement by Jesus: ‘true worshippers will worship the Father’. These few succinct words prompt the great question, who do you worship?
 
Such a question can make us feel guilty, especially if our reaction to the word ‘father’ is unhelpful or distant. However, far from trying to make us feel guilty, Jesus is actually offering a stunning invitation. Those six words are preceded by the phrase, ‘a time is coming and has now come’. The time is about him; it is his coming that changes everything about worship, because Jesus is the perfect picture of what God the Father is really like. To have seen Jesus, to have tasted his compassion and to have been touched by his forgiveness and grace, is to have received the touch of our Father God.
 
Jesus reveals the wonder of God’s fatherhood no matter what your experience of earthly fatherhood may be. Your joy is to explore that wonder, to be touched by it and to say ‘yes’ to the truth that the Father has turned himself towards you and his love for you is real. This is the beginning of true worship. Let the word ‘Father’ roll through your mind with a sense of worship, tenderness and longing in your heart.

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