In chapter 11 of his book Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster focuses on the Spiritual Discipline of Worship:
To worship is to experience reality, to touch Life. It is to know, to feel, to experience the resurrected Christ in the midst of the gathered community. It is breaking into the Shekinah of God (the glory of the radiance of God dwelling in the midst of God’s people.) Or, better yet, it is being invaded by the Shekinah of God.
God is actively seeking worshipers. Jesus declared ‘ The true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him.’ (John 4:23) It is God who seeks, draws, persuades. Worship is human response to divine initiative. In Genesis God walked in the garden seeking out Adam and Eve. In the crucifixion Jesus drew men and women to himself. (John 12:32) Scripture is replete with examples of God’s efforts to initiate, restore, and maintain fellowship with His children. God is like the father of the prodigal who, seeing his son a long way off, rushed to welcome him home. Worship is our responding to the overtures of love from the heart of the Father.
Prayer
I am truly glad when they say to me – ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’ Let me experience the risen Christ as you call me home. Amen